Long queues, inconvenience and angry travellers in the land of real buffaloes. This is what happened on Tuesday evening at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, due to a lightning strike by Kenyan civil aviation workers.
The strike is a result of the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) protesting against a proposed agreement between the government and the Indian airport management company Adani Group, which is in the process of taking over the Nairobi airport with a 30-year contract.
As travellers tried hard not to miss their flights, and those who had just arrived were forced to wait for long periods inside the airport, the unions were clamouring for the resignation of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) Board of Directors and three senior executives, accusing them of incompetence and mismanagement of negotiations.
The fears of the category that represents hundreds of employees is that many of them may lose their jobs, amidst redundancies and salary cuts, with the introduction of foreign workers and precarious contracts that would protect them less.
The strikers, as Citizen News learns, have also demanded the resignation of two Kenya Airways security managers, accusing them of human trafficking, sexual harassment and unfair promotions within the department, among other things.
Despite the union's demands, there was no meaningful response from Kenya Airways or KAA. As a result, the union action on Tuesday night led to the disruption of flight schedules, with many passengers stranded at the airport.
KAWU is convinced to continue the unrest if the proposed sale of the management of the Nairobi airport, the legality of whose contract is being examined by the High Court which has already blocked its validity pro tempore, is not dropped.