'Arrogant!' Atwoli blames CS Murkomen after aviation workers strike over Adani's JKIA takeover

The strike, which started at midnight, paralysed the international airport leaving thousands of travellers stranded for hours over the government's plan to lease the airport to the Indian conglomerate.

Atwoli, speaking at the airport on Wednesday morning, said the whole issue would have been sorted earlier were it not for the arrogance of the then Transport CS who is now in charge of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports.

He termed Mr Murkoman as "arrogant" for not picking up his calls and choosing to ignore the situation.

"I personally as COTU Sec Gen tried to call then CS Murkomen before these things started with a view of trying to advise him to meet the workers and explain this Adani issue to workers," he said.

"Our ministers are arrogant, they don't take telephones and if they do they take phones from businessmen and employers and disregard workers' calls. This is very dangerous and is what has brought what is happening here now," he added. 

Further, Atwoli suspected that the actions by the former Transport officials portrayed a government that sought to hide the details of the Adani deal. 

"We are urging our members to remain firm, strong. They have our support until we report on this issue. It was a very simple matter where the assurance to workers in writing that our members wouldn't lose jobs as it is required by law," Atwoli noted. 

"That assurance alone, we wouldn't be where we are now but a lot of arrogance. The Adani it's as if it is exclusive to management and government and we cannot allow that," he pointed out. 

At around 11:00 am, Kenya Airports Authority released a statement, indicating that minimal operations had resumed at the airport. KAA also encouraged passengers to reach out to their respective airlines to confirm their flight status.

The COTU boss at the same time demanded the immediate release of airport workers arrested for staging protests. 

The protests were staged by the Kenya Aviation Workers' Union (KAWU) on Tuesday night at around 10:00 pm, calling for the Adani deal to be terminated.

This saw normal operations grounded to a halt, leaving passengers stranded as flights were delayed. 

"We have said that those workers who were arrested to be released immediately. These are part of our conditions and I have said in the press, this would have been a simple issue if a meeting would have been held but our ministers are useless."

"We want to tell them that in this country, workers are part and parcel of the system. The State is owned by workers. You can't say you have consulted other stakeholders when the owners of the State have not been consulted."

He called out former Transport CS Murkomen for not holding a meeting with the workers to assure them of job security in writing despite the takeover.