Ramit Mehrotra, Pune
At least hundreds of airport working members called a strike due to a planned buyout by India’s Adani Group, which led to grounding flights and passengers being stranded. The workers are protesting against the deal to lease the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for 30 years, in exchange for an investment of $1.8bl. The Kenyan government said, in a statement, that the build-and-operate policy with the Indian business giant is aimed at renovating JKIA airport with an additional and freshly constructed terminal.
The airport authority said minimal operations had picked up by around 7 am. Francis Atwoli, Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, said the strike could have been averted if the government had listened to the workers. Last week, the union had threatened to go to a protest but called it off amidst pending decisions with the government.
The authorities said that Adani Group would add a second runway and upgrade the passenger terminal. Tourism is one of the major contributors to Kenya’s economy, contributing to more than 10% share of the country’s GDP, in 2022.
The airport staff started protesting on Tuesday at about midnight (11:00 GMT), which continued until Wednesday. Kenya’s largest aviation worker union said they would take industrial action in opposition to the deal with the Adani Group. In agitation with the deal, the workers blew plastic trumpets, with loud slogans of “Adani must Go”.
The Kenyan government clarified they want to modernise the airport functions to their optimum capacity since the airport has been operating above the normal limit. They said the decision to take the private-public partnership deal has not been confirmed yet.
The strike has spread to airport staff in Kisumu and Mombasa cities on Wednesday. Kenya’s high court has temporarily blocked the proposal, allowing more time for a judicial review which challenges the deal. The workers’ union, in a post on microblogging platform X, shared that they will reconsider their intent to engage in industrial action against the KQ and KAA on the conditions that Adani Group calls off the deal and discards the proposal altogether. The Board of Directors of Airport Authority resigns with immediate effect, along with the demand for the resignation of two KQ members, were some of the action points in the post.