By Edwin Waita
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Workers at Kenya’s main international airport ended a day-long strike on Wednesday, a union official said, after they were assured by the government that a plan to lease the airport to an Indian company would only proceed with the union’s approval.
The workers, blowing plastic trumpets and scuffling with police, had earlier caused cancellations and delays for hundreds of passengers with their protest at a plan to lease the airport to Adani Group for 30 years, in exchange for $1.85 billion of investment by Adani into the airport’s expansion.
Workers feared the lease would result in job cuts.
Francis Atwoli, secretary general of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, said the government and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union had agreed to review the proposals’ documents within 10 days and should any agreement proceed, the union must approve it. He added both had agreed that no one who participated in the strike would be punished.
The Adani Group, led by one of Asia’s richest persons, billionaire Gautam Adani, did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier on Wednesday, dozens of workers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport chanted “Adani must go”. Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said air traffic control services were fully operational, with landings and take-offs uninterrupted, but outside the terminals, passengers said they waited for hours for updates on flights.
TV footage showed one police officer hitting a protester with a baton. By midday, airport lines were moving again, as police conducted security checks instead of airport staff.
“The strike is over,” Moss Ndiema, secretary general of the aviation workers’ union, said later on Wednesday.
JOB FEARS
Adani’s group operates seven airports in India and has often faced criticism from Indian opposition parties for winning favours from ruling governments. Indian officials and the Adani group have denied such accusations.
Adani is also considering investing in two airports in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government said in July.
The Kenya Aviation Workers Union argues that a deal with Adani 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 no decision has been made on what it calls a proposed public-private partnership to upgrade the site.
Kenya’s high court on Monday temporarily blocked the Adani proposal, in which it would build a new runway and upgrade the passenger terminal, to allow time for a judicial review.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland, Humphrey Malalo and Edwin Waita; additional reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi editing by Elaine Hardcastle, Andrew Cawthorne, Alexandra Hudson)
