Service disruption was on Monday morning witnessed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi after dozens of passengers were either left stranded or took long hours undergoing check in and check out processes.

This was brought about by the continued stand off between the government and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) over the Adani holdings proposed takeover of the International Airport.

According to an official, the delay was caused by KAWU’s decision to march and present their grievances to the airport's management.

‘‘Today morning, we were taking our grievances in a slow procession from JKIA terminal 1A to the Kenya Airports Authority acting managing director Henry Ogoye,’’ Moses Ndiema, KAWU Secretary General revealed. 

The official, however, clarified that contrary to some media reports, they had not officially commenced the much anticipated strike, maintaining that they only went to present their grievances to the management after a meeting they held on Saturday resolved for the same.

‘’We resolved at the meeting with our members on Saturday that as much as we delay the strike, we want the government to chase away the foreign nationals who are roaming around the airport causing security threats,’’ he added.

KAWU also revealed that they will start the anticipated strike anytime from today maintaining that they only suspended the strike to give them time to go through the documents that the government had presented as part of the response to their demands on the nature of the contract between the government and Adani Holdings.

KAWU equally demanded the Adani representatives be barred from taking pictures of JKIA and that they vacate the airport immediately.

"They are currently roaming around taking pictures everywhere, this is a threat to us and to our security. Who knows what they want to do with the pictures, they can even be selling them to (others)," The union official disclosed. 

KAWU, therefore, blamed the government for not acting in good faith from the response they are receiving in regards to the disclosure of the information on the deal.

"We were only given five documents by the government out of the eleven that we were supposed to be given and out of the five, some had not even been signed," Ndiema noted.

The airport workers union also wants members of the state privatisation committee not to take part in the due diligence team that is supposed to travel to India to hold talks on the proposed takeover. They also want the stakeholder engagement to stop immediately following a resolution made from their meeting held on Saturday, a source at the meeting told us.

‘’We don’t want them to go there, what are we even doing with these Indian guys around, they don’t even know Kiswahili.’’ The union protested.

The union said that should the government fail to address all their grievances by today Monday, then they will have no alternative but to begin the industrial action instantly.