For now, there is no strike at Kenya's airports. Everyone is waiting with bated breath.
With a provisional order issued on February 12, 2026, the Employment and Labor Relations Court of Kenya decided to pause the strike announced by aviation workers, freezing—at least temporarily—the protest and restoring a semblance of normality to Kenyan skies.
The decision came from the orderly corridors of the Milimani Law Courts, where the case between the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union was discussed. In the middle, as always, were passengers, suitcases, missed connections, and tickets bought with months of sacrifice.
The court recognized the urgency of the KCAA's request and ruled that the strike notice of February 9 would remain a dead letter until further review. Translated: for now, work continues, flights are monitored, and planes fly. And the confrontation is postponed.
The order emphasizes that no union action may interfere with the Authority's essential functions: flight safety, service regulation, and civil aviation growth. All words that sound noble, especially when a plane takes off on time and lands without surprises.
“These functions are essential to protect travelers and maintain confidence in the industry,” said KCAA Director General Emile Arao. A sentence that seems to have been written with millions of passengers in mind, but also with a system that exists in a precarious balance between rules, wages, grueling shifts, and postponed promises.
The court has set the next hearing for February 26, 2026. Until then, the strike remains suspended like a plane holding above Nairobi: waiting for permission to land, or to take off again in a storm.
For its part, the KCAA has reassured passengers, airlines, and the public that operations will continue normally, safely, and without interruption. It also reiterated its commitment to “constructive dialogue,” that elegant formula that in press releases means: let's talk, but without breaking anything.
Meanwhile, in the terminals, people continue to clock in, check radars, respond to complaints, and smile behind the counters. The protest has not disappeared: it is just parked, with the handbrake on.
In the Kenyan sky, for now, everything is proceeding as usual. But below the runways, in union rooms and administrative offices, the game is still open. And the next takeoff, the real one, will be on February 26.