Juliett Otieno and Evelyn Kwamboka
Operations of the Kenyan airspace will be paralysed in the next 48 hours, it was announced yesterday.
Officials of the Aviation and Allied Workers’ Union (AAWU) told the Government to braze for a countrywide strike if their demands will not have been met.
Speaking at a news conference, the Union’s General Secretary, Mr Jimmy Masege, gave Kenya Airways a 48-hour notice starting today.
Within this period, KQ is expected to reschedule its flights to other airlines, he said.
"We cannot guarantee smooth sailing after the expiry of the notice," Masege said.
The workers had threatened to paralyse transport at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for alleged non-remittance of dues by Kenya Airways to their union.
Those poised to strike include ground staff at JKIA and other airports, flight attendants and maintenance workers.
However, Labour minister Newton Kulundu had earlier declared the strike illegal and warned that such action would lead to serious consequences.
Kulundu had said the recently registered union was yet to be approved to represent aviation staff.
The union had demanded that Kenya Airways enter a collective bargain agreement with unionisable workers without delay.
But Kenya Airways has rejected an application by AAWU — registered last May — to represent workers because another association, the Transport Workers and Allied Workers Union was already in existence.
Meanwhile, business at JKIA was normal yesterday despite the strike threat.
Kenya Airways employees went on with their operations as some of the flights were rerouted to Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
A senior airport official who declined to be named, said some international flights were rerouted due to bad weather.
Anxious friends and relatives waited for passengers from Entebbe in Uganda for more than three hours, following a delay in landing.
The flight was expected at 10.55am but had not landed by 1.30pm.
Other international flights that landed yesterday morning included those from Amsterdam, Doula and Dar-es-Salaam. Local flights to and from Mombasa and Kisumu were normal.
The Aviation and Allied Workers' Union in Nairobi, Kenya, has threatened to suspend operations in 48 hours at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport if the government does not accede to its requests, the East African Standard reported on April 18.

The minister of Labour, Newton Kulundu, "declared the strike illegal and warned that such action would lead to serious consequences," said the Standard. A representative of the union, Jimi Masege, said that the airline was ignoring an order from the registrar of trade unions to collect money from airport workers and give it to the union, Nairobi's Daily Nation said.

Kulundu called on the union to respect the April 14 ruling of what the Nation called an "industrial relations officer," which required the union to refrain from striking. The Standard noted that there was some dispute as to whether the AAWU was properly registered with the government. According to the Daily Nation, Kulundu recommended that the dispute be handled by the state  Industrial Court if an agreement could not be reached. 

While some airline operations on April 18 have been disrupted due to bad weather, the union is not planning to strike until Wednesday, April 20.