In a demand letter dated September 7, lawyers from Maina Ngaruiya & Company Advocates accuse the airline of breaching its contractual obligations to Muite, his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren over the cancellation and handling of Flight KQ491 on August 31.
According to the letter, the family was forced to hire a private charter aircraft to return to Nairobi after waiting for roughly seven and a half hours without basic assistance, including drinking water.
The family had travelled to Zanzibar for an 11 day holiday and was booked on KQ491, which was scheduled to depart at approximately 10:10am.
The lawyers say the family was aware of an ongoing industrial action by the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) and repeatedly checked Kenya Airways’ website and mobile app between 5am and 6:30am on the day of travel. The flight, they say, was still showing as “Scheduled” and “On Time” on the airline’s platforms.
“Relying on the flight information published through Kenya Airways’ official website, our clients reasonably understood that the flight was operating as scheduled,” the lawyers said in the letter.
The family arrived at the airport at about 8:10am and sought confirmation from Kenya Airways staff, who reportedly assured them the flight was on time. They were issued boarding passes, checked in their luggage and cleared immigration before heading to the departure lounge.
By around 10am, however, the airport information board had changed the flight’s status to “delayed.” The lawyers claim Kenya Airways failed to give timely information on the cause of the delay or how long passengers would need to wait.
The family later established that KQ490, the corresponding Nairobi-Zanzibar flight whose aircraft was expected to operate the return leg as KQ491, was still on the ground at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The advocates questioned why passengers had been allowed to check in and clear immigration despite the aircraft not having left Nairobi.
It was not until about 3:45pm that passengers were told by a Zanzibar Airport employee, rather than a Kenya Airways representative, that the flight had been cancelled.
“To our clients’ utter shock, the cancellation was not communicated directly by a Kenya Airways representative,” the lawyers said.
Passengers were reportedly informed that the airline would not provide accommodation or food vouchers, and were instead directed to go back through immigration, collect their luggage and await further communication by email.
Faced with the situation, the Muite family says it hired a private aircraft to fly them to Nairobi at a cost of USD 20,500, roughly Sh2.65 million, plus a further Sh52,650 in related charter expenses.
The lawyers are demanding reimbursement of those costs alongside a refund for the unused portion of the family’s Kenya Airways tickets. The family had paid Sh596,450 for return tickets, and the lawyers are seeking 50 per cent of that amount, or Sh298,225, to cover the leg of the journey that was not completed on August 31.
Muite also claims he suffered further losses after arriving in Nairobi a day late and missing meetings that had been scheduled for that day.
The advocates have given Kenya Airways seven days from receipt of the letter to accept liability, reimburse the claimed expenses, pay general damages and provide a written explanation for how the cancellation was handled.
The family says it reserves its rights under the contract of carriage, the Montreal Convention, the Consumer Protection Act and the Civil Aviation Act.
“Take notice that unless Kenya Airways satisfactorily resolves this matter within seven days, we have mandatory instructions to commence legal proceedings,” the lawyers warned.
