Hundreds of staff at Kenya’s main airport have gone on strike over a planned buyout by India’s Adani Group, grounding flights and leaving passengers stranded.

Workers at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) began their protest at about midnight (21:00 GMT) on Tuesday, continuing into Wednesday, objecting to a planned deal to lease the facility to the Adani Group for 30 years in return for an investment of $1.85bn.

The government said the build-and-operate agreement with the Indian conglomerate would see JKIA renovated and an additional runway and terminal constructed.

The Kenya Airport Workers Union, which is leading the strike and is the biggest union representing Kenya’s aviation workers, said the deal would cut jobs and worsen employment conditions.

Other critics said the takeover would deny taxpayers future profits from the airport, whose freight and passenger fees make up more than 5 percent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“The strike is on, and all shifts have been suspended,” union leader Moses Ndiema told workers at the airport.

“Adani must go. That is not optional,” he said.

Reporting from outside JKIA, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said the workers planned to keep striking until the deal, which they called “bad for Kenya”, is dropped.

Kenya Airways workers walk past stranded passengers during the strike at the country’s main international airport [Thomas Mukoya/Reuters]

‘Minimal operations’ resume

The Kenya Airports Authority said “minimal operations” had picked up by 7am (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday, but data from Flight Radar showed long delays and several cancellations of flights in and out of the airport.

At the main airport, police officers took up security check-in roles with long lines seen outside the departure terminals and worried passengers unable to confirm whether their flights would depart as scheduled.

“They closed the doors at around 12 [midnight],” one stranded passenger, Elvis Mushengu, told the AFP news agency after waiting through the night.

“We don’t know who’s doing the screening or what the procedure is. … We’ve not slept. We’re just tired.”

Riot police stand guard as passengers wait for their flights during a strike by workers at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport [Thomas Mukoya/Reuters]

The Kenya Airports Authority said in a statement that it was “engaging relevant parties to normalise operations” and urged passengers to contact respective airlines to confirm flight status.

Workers ‘need assurances’

Francis Atwoli, secretary-general of the Central Organization of Trade Unions, told journalists at the airport that the strike could have been averted had the government listened to the workers.

“This was a very simple matter where the assurance to workers in writing that our members will not lose jobs and their jobs will remain protected by the government, as is required by law, and that assurance alone, we wouldn’t have been here,” he said.

Last week, airport workers had threatened to go on strike, but the plans were called off pending discussions with the government, which said the deal is necessary to restore the airport.

The High Court on Monday temporarily halted the implementation of the deal until a case filed by the Law Society and the Kenya Human Rights Commission is heard.

A date for a final verdict on the deal has yet to be set.

While JKIA is one of Africa’s busiest air hubs, handling 8.8 million passengers and 380,000 tonnes of cargo in 2022-2023, it is often dogged by power outages and leaking roofs.

Adani would add a second runway and upgrade the passenger terminal, according to the Kenya Airports Authority.

The government said the airport is operating above capacity and needs modernising but that it is not for sale. It also said no decision has been made on whether to proceed with what it calls a proposed public-private partnership to upgrade the site.

Tourism is a major contributor to Kenya’s economy, accounting for more than 10 percent of its GDP in 2022, according to the government.