JUST IN: Kenya’s International Airport Closes as Workers Strike

By Our Reporter

WORLD

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on the night of Tuesday, September 10, as Kenya Aviation Authority (KAA) workers officially commenced their strike.

Earlier, the workers had given the government and JKIA an ultimatum to make public a deal it entered with Adani Group Holdings in managing the international airport.

Last night, long queues were experienced beginning around 9 pm with several passengers reporting runway traffic.

“JKIA staff go-slow causes long lines as they plan to go on strike at midnight over Adani takeover deal. They’re declaring a ‘total lockdown’ to oppose the Indian firm, several employees tell me,” one of the passengers, Larry Madowo, noted.

“I’m on one of the last flights out of JKIA at 2359 hours – if it makes it – before the airport workers’ strike begins at midnight.”

As of 12:23am, Madowo revealed that his plane was still waiting on the runway.

Other passengers confirmed that once the strike officially kicked off at midnight no plane had taken off at JKIA worsening the situation.

Others were concerned that those flying in from abroad had mixed with others planning to depart, a situation that posed a security risk.

All employees of KAA had downed tools and no one was at the entry points to check on-boarding passengers while several other flights were cancelled.

“JKIA is completely overwhelmed, it can’t handle the traffic. It’s chaos. There are now brokers getting paid to get you to the front of the line,” another traveller, Edwin Dande, expressed frustration.

Earlier in August, the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) announced that the strike was scheduled after the government failed to fulfil its demands after a series of meetings.

At the top of the concerns was that the deal, involving JKIA and Indian conglomerate Adani Group, would lead to mass layoffs of employees.

Several had even lamented that representatives from the conglomerate were already at the airport carrying out assessment though the fine print of the deal remains secretive.