Standstill at JKIA as airport workers hold anti-Adani protest

Hundreds of travellers are stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport after staff at the crucial transport hub downed their tools over the controversial plans by the government to lease the airport to Indian company, Adani Enterprises.  

On Tuesday evening, the Kenya Airport Workers Union (Kawu) said the government has not shown goodwill after their last series of talks regarding the planned lease and as such, will proceed on strike beginning Wednesday midnight (September 11, 2024).

“The industrial strike action is starting at 12am. The government has not been straightforward and they are not genuine. They have not provided us with all the documents that we demanded.  All we want is that the government stops the Adani deal,” Kawu Secretary General, Moss Ndiema told Nation.Africa.

Thus far, the government has only revealed that in the deal, the Indian firm will upgrade the airport, including the construction of a second runway and a new passenger terminal under a 30-year build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract.

Barely a week ago, the workers had threatened to go on strike but later rescinded the plans after engaging the government at a high-stake meeting held at the State House. 

Among the key concerns they raised included the presence of strangers, purported to be Adani’s employees who have been moving around JKIA in the company of Kenya Airport Authority’s senior security personnel.

These unknown persons, they said, were engaged in unknown activities including taking photographs of various installations and carrying out stock-assessment exercises which the workers suspected to be related to the advancement of the lease programme. 

As a condition to call off the initial strike, the workers demanded that the “secret, unknown, unexplained and clandestine movements and activities by Adani employees, agents or assigns around JKIA and related installations be halted and stopped forthwith”.

They also demanded full disclosure of the details of the proposed lease of the airport to Adani and that they be handed over the documents for their perusal before anything else happened. These documents, they said, would inform their meaningful contribution to the public participation phase of the project. 

The workers also demanded the stopping of the intended travel of a delegation of 16 people to India in a mission to progress the leasing of the airport to Adani until the stakeholder and public participation exercise is completed and “Kenyans have signalled their approval of the project”. 

These demands, Mr Ndiema said, were their irreducible minimum conditions to withhold their intended strike action which they temporarily postponed for a week effective immediately, September 2, 2024, as they awaited the receipt of the documents they requested. 

“In the event that the above conditions are not met, we shall proceed to reinstate the strike with immediate effect,” the Kawu boss said.

Failure by the State to avail the requisite paperwork, the Union said, is to solely blame for this drastic measure.

This move by the airport staff also comes barely a day after the High Court temporarily halted the proposed leasing of the airfield following a suit filed by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) at the High Court. 

The two entities challenged the push to take over the running of JKIA by the Indian company for a period of 30 years and argued that the airport is a strategic and profitable national asset.

As such, the petitioners said the deal is irrational and violates the principles of good governance, accountability, transparency, and prudent and responsible use of public money.