FLIGHTS REMAIN GROUNDED AT JKIA SINCE 4AM AS AVIATION WORKERS DOWN THEIR TOOLS
(Posted 06th March 2019)
Hundreds of travelers intending to fly out of East Africa’s busiest airport, Jomo Kenyatta International in Nairobi, are piling up at the check in counters and departure lounges after airport workers reportedly down their tools and stopped working in the wee hours of the night.
Besides long standing grievances with various employers are workers also said to be expressing their dissent over plans to merge the loss making Kenya Airways with the profitable Kenya Airports Authority, which they have claimed is done to drain away a fat cash purse and bail out the airline, which continues to bleed money.
Feeble reassurances given from government and the parties involved clearly has not had success as the union, which had given a strike notice some time ago should their grievances not be resolved, call their staff out in any case to make their displeasure known.
Incoming flights are reportedly stuck with no baggage and ground handling and all outbound flight have for now been kept on the ground, effectively inflicting maximum damage on passenger flying into and connecting out of Nairobi to their final destinations.
While it is understood that despite the early hour a government crisis meeting has been called are all passengers urged to check with their respective airlines if and when their flights depart before leaving for the airport.
The situation was aggravated earlier this week when the Speaker of Kenya’s Parliament ruled that a committee which directed a halt to the merger talks was told to stand down, inflaming an already heated situation on the ground as workers and their unions lost confidence in the sincerity and honesty of ongoing talks and those talking.
At the same time is information emerging that the Kenya Airways CEO and Board Chairman, senior managers and ‘consultants‘ were allegedly paid a whopping 1.3 billion Kenya Shillings, further pouring fuel into the dispute fire now raging and crippling East Africa’s busiest airport.
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