A strike by workers at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport has led to flight delays and cancellations, affecting both arriving and departing passengers, according to Kenya Airways on Wednesday.
The Kenya Aviation Workers Union initiated the industrial action in protest of a proposed 30-year lease deal with India’s Adani Group, which was announced in July.
The union expressed concerns that the agreement would result in job losses and the hiring of non-Kenyan workers.
Although Kenya’s government acknowledges the airport is operating over capacity and needs modernization, it has emphasized that no decision has been made regarding the potential public-private partnership and insists the airport is not for sale.
Videos posted on X showed long lines of passengers outside JKIA’s single terminal after the strike started at midnight on Tuesday.
By Wednesday morning, dozens of airport workers were seen blowing plastic horns and chanting “Adani must go,” according to footage from Citizen TV, which also captured a police officer striking a protester with a baton.
Kenya’s high court had temporarily halted the Adani proposal on Monday, allowing time for a judicial review of the Indian company’s plan to construct a new runway and upgrade the terminal.
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