NAIROBI (Reuters) -A strike by workers at Kenya’s main international airport in Nairobi has caused flight delays and cancellations for both departing and arriving passengers, Kenya Airways said on Wednesday.
The biggest union of Kenya’s aviation workers said they would take industrial action on Wednesday over a proposed deal for India’s Adani Group to lease Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for 30 years.
The Kenya Aviation Workers Union, which represents airport workers, said the proposed agreement announced in July would lead to job losses and bring in non-Kenyan workers.
Kenya’s government has said the airport is operating above capacity and needs modernising but that it is not for sale.
It says that no decision has been made on whether to proceed with what it calls a proposed public-private partnership to upgrade the site.
Videos shared on the social media platform X showed hundreds of passengers queuing outside JKIA’s single terminal after the strike began at midnight on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, dozens of airport workers blew plastic trumpets and chanted “Adani must go”, according to footage on local broadcaster Citizen TV, which also showed a police officer hitting a protester with a baton.
Kenya’s high court on Monday temporarily blocked the Adani proposal, in which the Indian company would build a new runway and upgrade the passenger terminal, to allow time for a judicial review challenging the lease.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland; Editing by Kim Coghill and Lincoln Feast.)
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