Kenya Airways Pilots' Strike Set to Begin on November 5
Flights departing and landing at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) will be disrupted beginning Saturday after Kenya Airways (KQ) pilots defied a court order by failing to call off a planned strike.
Leah Mukangai 
In a statement released, the KQ workers will not attend to their normal duties as the management has failed to take action after they raised several issues.
The airline was majorly accused of pilot victimization and harassment, as well as unilateral withdrawal of the staff provident fund, non-compliance with Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations, and leadership and governance issues.
KALPA said in a press conference yesterday that if its grievances are addressed, it will call off the strike.
“Beginning Saturday, 5th November 2022, from 6.00 am local time, there shall be no Kenya Airways aircraft departing JKIA flown by a Kalpa member,” the Kalpa general secretary Murithi Nyaga stated.
The strike, which had threatened to paralyze KQ operations and derail its recovery from the effects of travel restrictions imposed following the Covid-19 pandemic, was temporarily halted by the Labour Court on October 31, 2022.
Kenya Airways had gone ahead to seek court orders to halt the strike, citing the risk of paying large fines for flight cancellations totaling Sh300 million.
“The strike notice has since expired, and we are therefore at liberty to exercise our right to withdraw our labor forthwith as enshrined in Article 41, Chapter 4 of the Kenyan Constitution,” Nyaga stated.
