The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has witnessed tremendous growth in the last 20 years since it was established.
KCAA was established on 24th October 2002 by the Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act, 2002 with the primary functions being Regulation and oversight of Aviation Safety and Security; Economic regulation of Air Services and development of Civil Aviation and Provision of Air Navigation Services.
According to the Auditor General report of 2019-2020, the Authority experienced a decline in financial performance due to Covid -19.
Revenue earnings decreased from 8.94 billion shillings to kshs 7.19 billion.
However, despite this decline, KCAA financial results still recorded a net surplus of kshs 1,770,234,799 to a surplus of the previous year of shs 2,903,268,942.
The report indicated that the sector had grown as a result of 1,586 aircrafts being registered in Kenya.
These include government aircrafts and private ones.
48 new aircrafts were registered in 2019-20120 financial year.
However, KCAA de-registered 9 aircrafts the same year.
The sector also saw at least 873 individuals issued with Aircraft Maintenance Engineer licenses and 2448 people issued with Cabin crew Member certificate (CMC).
A total of 105 Approved Maintenance Organizations both local and foreign were registered.
19 organizations were registered as Approved Training Organizations.
In the same year, KCAA boosted of having 2169 students at the East African School of Aviation (EASA).
In March 2022, KCAA named Emile Nguza Rao its Director-General.
His appointment followed the completion of a recruitment process to find a replacement for Capt. Gilbert Kibe.
Arao has since 2018 served as the Executive Director of the East African Community’s Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (CASSOA).
He was previously the Deputy Executive Director (Technical) at CASSOA.
He boasts over 20 years of experience in diverse areas of the aviation sector.
He is also an entrepreneur and has been involved in the establishment of over four airlines.
Arao is a Multi Instrument Commercial Pilot license holder licensed by the Federal Aviation Authority in the United States.
He has flown in Africa, North America and Europe.
