Nairobi, Sept. 3 -- For two days, Kenya's aviation sector was paralysed as staff downed tools in a strike that grounded flights and stranded thousands of passengers.

Yet this disruption was not inevitable. It was the predictable outcome of a long-simmering collapse in relations between the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) management and the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (Kawu).

The first warning sign was management's unilateral stoppage of agency-fee remittances to the union-a move that instantly eroded trust and signalled contempt for established labour processes.

Mutual suspicion then metastasised: union leaders alleged that management was practising divide-and-rule, engaging only a faction within Kawu while quietly sponsoring a splinte...