“As long as the threat of Adani still hangs on our heads, and until the government communicates precisely that we are abandoning the intention of leasing out JKIA to Adani, that strike will be on,” Moss Ndiema, the union’s secretary general, told OCCRP on Thursday.
On August 6, the union sent letters demanding the immediate resignation of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) CEO and entire board. “There is no iota of transparency or equal opportunity in this deal,” said the letters seen by OCCRP. The union alleged that KAA had broken the law due to the lack of transparency surrounding the deal.
On July 24, OCCRP revealed the details of Adani Group’s proposal worth US$2.5 billion to lease Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for 30 years. This was approved by KAA, even after experts had advised the Kenyan government to put out a public tender to expand the airport, according to documents. There had been no public hearings surrounding the proposal, which had been approved to a “development phase.”
On the same day, Henry Ogoye, KAA CEO, confirmed in a statement on X that Adani Airport Holdings Inc. had submitted a proposal to build a terminal and improve the infrastructure. He said the proposal would be “subjected to technical, financial, and legal reviews along requisite due processes.”
However, the letters state that Adani’s proposal was prematurely submitted to KAA in March, long before the airport’s infrastructure plan was approved by the government in June. “This is tantamount to putting the cart before the horse,” the letters signed by KAWU’s secretary general Moss Ndiema said. KAA did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
Ndiema told OCCRP that a meeting had been held by Mohamed Daghar, principal secretary for transport, on August 6 before the letters were sent, to urge the union to support the Adani deal. The meeting ended without agreement. “It’s a bad deal,” Ndiema said. “It’s a deal tainted with corruption.” The Ministry of Transport and Roads did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
In the meeting, and their subsequent letters, KAWU expressed concerns that Adani’s takeover of the airport would lead to mass layoffs and the negotiation of contracts. “No doubt, the secret scheme is intended to visit pain, suffering and loss of livelihoods to the employees to whom you have a duty of care to protect against such fraudsters,” the letters said.
The letters demanded resignations within seven days — failing that the union planned to “escalate our demand through other means.” Ndiema told OCCRP that he is planning to issue the potential strike notice on Saturday if demands are not met.