Nelson Amenya talks about why he revealed the details

Kenyan business student Nelson Amenya has been hailed as a hero by those fighting for greater transparency in the deals his government makes with private companies.

Modern Kenyan history is full of stories of huge contracts resulting from corruption – and despite laws that are supposed to prevent this from happening, there are doubts that it continues to happen.

Thirty-year-old Amenya, who is studying for an MBA in France, leaked details on social media about what he said was a proposed agreement between Kenya and the Adani Group, an Indian multinational, in July.

It is about the management of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) – the largest airport in the country and the region, whose complete overhaul is long overdue.

“The first feeling I had (when I passed the documents) was that it was just another government deal… I didn’t understand the scale or the seriousness of it,” said Amenya, whose profile as an anti-corruption activist was online. Height tells the BBC.

The documents detail a $2bn (£1.6bn) offer from Adani Group to lease JKIA for 30 years in order to modernize and operate it.

As he began examining the papers, he felt that if it went ahead, it would “hurt the Kenyan economy” while all the benefits would go to the Indian multinational.

The deal seemed unfair to him, according to what he read, as Kenya would still invest the largest share of the money but would not reap the financial benefits.

Amenia had good reason to believe the papers were real. “The people who gave me these documents were from very legitimate government departments,” he says.

The Adani Group is involved in infrastructure, mining and energy projects globally, in countries such as Israel, the United Arab Emirates, France, Tanzania, Australia and Greece. Its founder, Gautam Adani, is considered a major player in the Indian economy and a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Through further reading, Amenya says he discovered that Adani's deal with Kenya could have left his country obligated to pay the company if it did not recover its investment.

“This was a huge breach of the people’s trust by the leadership of the President, the Kenya Airports Authority and the Minister – they all betrayed the people,” he claims.

Despite the evidence in hand, Amenya was wrestling with what to do next. His personal safety was at risk, although his presence in France was better than in Kenya, where anti-corruption activists were targeted and some killed.

“I was a little scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. I'm risking my career, I'm risking my life, why should I take the risk to do this?” He asked himself then.

However, in the end he felt that staying quiet was not an option.

“You know, only cowards live long.”

After spending weeks reviewing what was sent to him, Amenya leaked the documents on his X page in July, immediately sparking outrage in Kenya.

JKIA Airport workers went on strike, demanding the deal be cancelled.

“It seemed like a duty to me, to my country. Even if I am far away, I still have a duty to my country. I want to see a better Kenya, my country become advanced and industrialized, and an end to corruption.”

He expressed concern that the airport deal was a harbinger of what might come next.

Amenya says it was not just the unusual terms and lack of transparency that raised alarm bells, but also, he claims, that Kenyan laws were being systematically ignored.

“(The authorities) never did their due diligence on this company… nor followed due process in the purchase.”

He claims some government officials were hoping to bypass legal requirements, including public consultation, that are supposed to prevent misspending of taxpayer money.

An April report by the Kenya Airports Authority on the proposed deal highlighted that there was no plan to consult stakeholders on the plan.

“That was in April, and by July when I was revealing this, they had not been publicly involved,” Amenya claims. “This deal was completely secret, and by then they were only a month away from signing the deal.”

“After I revealed this deal, they hurriedly tried to come and do phony public engagement – ​​they contacted Kenya Airports Authority staff and started holding meetings with stakeholders.”

Several officials and state branches denied allegations of corruption in the process, and authorities went ahead with signing another multi-million dollar deal with the Adani Group – this time to build power lines.

Adani Group said Amenia's allegations were baseless and malicious.

“The proposal was submitted in accordance with Kenyan public-private partnership regulations and was intended to create a world-class airport and significantly boost the Kenyan economy by creating many new job opportunities,” a company spokesperson told the BBC.

The Adani Group also says that no contract has been signed because “discussions have not progressed towards a binding agreement.”

The company also says that the energy deal proposal was clear and that the company “categorically refutes all allegations and insinuations of any violation of Kenyan laws in our operations or proposals.

“Every project we undertake is governed by a strong commitment to compliance, transparency and the laws of the respective countries in which we operate,” the statement read.

But it was not the Amenia leaks that actually changed the government's mind.

Kenya only acted when US authorities charged Gautam Adani with alleged involvement in a $250 million (£200 million) bribery scheme.

Representatives of the Adani Group denied the allegations of US prosecutors, calling them “baseless.”

In his State of the Nation Address to Parliament last month, Kenyan President William Ruto announced the cancellation of the two Adani deals.

“In the face of indisputable evidence or reliable information about corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action,” Ruto said in a speech that received huge applause in Parliament.

Kenyans celebrated the decision which Ruto attributed to new information provided by investigative agencies and partner countries.

“I was in class when the announcement came,” Mr. Amenia says. “I couldn’t believe it.”

“I think for the first hour, I had tears in my eyes. I was so happy.”

Although he does not see himself as a hero, messages of support have poured in from everywhere, including from India.

Forty minutes after the lesson ended, he posted his now famous tweet, “Bye Adani!!” – Goodbye, Adani.

“It was so momentous… Everything I did finally paid off.”

But the feeling of victory came after months of struggle and personal pressure.

Shortly after the airport deal was revealed, Amenya was sued for defamation by an Adani Group representative and a Kenyan politician, leaving him wondering whether he should continue.

“Some people were coming to me from the government, and they were willing to pay me money, and they were telling me: 'You have to withdraw your money and stop this fight with the government,'” he recalls.

“Surrendering would have been the biggest mistake of my life, and a betrayal of the Kenyan people.”

But even after the agreements were cancelled, President Ruto still wonders why Kenyans oppose this and many other projects he has championed. He says he will find a way to upgrade the airport.

“I saw them saying that those who stopped the development of our airport are heroes. Heroes? What do you gain when you stop building an airport in your country?” Ruto asked at a public event in early December.

“You have no idea how to build it, and those who oppose it have never set foot inside an airport. You just want to oppose.”

Amenya, who is still facing defamation cases, is raising money to help pay his legal fees, and says his future in Kenya is uncertain.

“I have received threats from credible intelligence agencies and people in Kenya who have warned me not to come back because there are clearly some people who are very angry about what I did,” he says.

It's a high price, but Mr Amenya says he would gladly pay it again.

“We don't really need to wait for someone to save us,” he says.