Kenya Aviation Workers Union calls off strike

This as 400 KQ pilots downed their tools on Saturday , protesting what they termed as neglect of their grievances, which saw about 10,000 passengers affected. 

Speaking on Sunday, KAWU Secretary General Moss Ndiema said that they opted to suspend their action to allow KALPA iron out their disputes with both KQ's management and the government to avoid a further impairment of airport operations.

"We will wait until the issue between KALPA and KQ is resolved so that we don't create confusion, that is why we suspended our action yesterday," he said.

"We called off our action with immediate effect and it will allow all other flights to be facilitated. The only affected airline is KQ. If we had gone ahead and downed tools then this airport would have been closed because all departments would have been grounded."

Mr. Ndiema however, clarified that they do not support all the grievances KALPA had cited prior to the strike.

He affirmed that they will be ready to protest against the ousting of KQ top officials including the carrier's CEO Allan Kilavuka, unless they are invited to the negotiation table on the way forward.

"Kenya Aviation Workers Union would like to state that we have as much stake in who becomes the CEO of Kenya Airways as KALPA has or other section of employees," he said.

"But if the issue is about Allan Kilavuka to resign then we should be invited to that debate because our stand is that he may not be perfect but he has restored KQ on the recovery path," he added.

"If there is anything Allan Kilavuka has done wrong then let us know so that we discuss it. But the position of KAWU is that we have confidence in them and they should not be forced out and in any case we are ready to resist it."

The standoff has led to KQ advising passengers who have chosen not to travel to cancel their tickets, apologizing to its customers over the stalemate.

They assured that they will provide a solution at the earliest opportunity, including rebooking them on other airlines.