Thousands of passengers were yesterday stranded at Kenya’s main international airport after a strike caused major disruption to flights.
The military was deployed to try to break the industrial action at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta airport though the situation has eased slightly and a few flights have taken off, but there was a long backlog of passengers.
Workers were unhappy about plans to merge the airport authority and the national airline.
Flights in Mombasa, Eldoret and Kisumu were also disrupted.
According to the country’s Transport Cabinet secretary, James Macharia, the government condemned the strike as illegal and Kenyan air force personnel were brought in to help screen passengers.
Earlier there were clashes at Jomo Kenyatta airport between demonstrating workers and paramilitary riot police.
Officers used batons and tear gas to disperse strikers, some of whom were injured.
BBC/BEN