Senior Counsel Paul Muite and his family are demanding more than Ksh3 million from Kenya Airways after a cancelled flight left them stranded at Zanzibar’s Abeid Amani Karume International Airport for several hours.
Lawyers from Maina Ngaruiya & Company Advocates issued a demand letter dated September 7, 2026. They accuse Kenya Airways of breaching its contractual obligations to Muite, his wife, two daughters and two grandchildren.
The dispute centres on the cancellation and handling of Flight KQ491 on August 31, 2026.
Family waits for hours
According to the lawyers, the family waited for about seven and a half hours without basic assistance, including drinking water.
The family had travelled to Zanzibar for an 11-day holiday. They booked KQ491, which the airline scheduled to leave Zanzibar at around 10:10am.
At the time, the Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) was engaged in industrial action. The family says they checked the Kenya Airways website and mobile app several times between 5am and 6:30am.
The airline’s platforms still showed the flight as “Scheduled” and “On Time.”
“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.
The family arrived at the airport at about 8:10am and asked Kenya Airways staff to confirm the flight status.
According to the demand letter, airline employees assured them that the flight would operate on time. Staff then issued the family boarding passes, checked their luggage and cleared them through immigration.
Kenya Airways cancels flight
However, the airport information board changed the flight status to “Delayed” at around 10am.
The lawyers claim Kenya Airways did not promptly explain the reason for the delay. They also say the airline failed to tell passengers how long they would have to wait.
The family later discovered that KQ490, the Nairobi-Zanzibar flight whose aircraft would operate the return journey as KQ491, was still at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
The lawyers questioned why Kenya Airways allowed passengers to check in and clear immigration when the aircraft had not left Nairobi.
Passengers only learned about the cancellation at around 3:45pm.
According to the lawyers, a Zanzibar Airport employee, rather than a Kenya Airways representative, informed passengers about the cancellation.
“To our clients’ utter shock, the cancellation was not communicated directly by a Kenya Airways representative,” the lawyers said.
The airline reportedly told passengers that it would not provide accommodation or food vouchers.
Instead, officials instructed them to go through immigration again, collect their luggage and wait for further communication by email.
Family hires private aircraft
With no immediate solution, the Muite family hired a private aircraft to return to Nairobi.
The family says it paid US$20,500, or about Ksh2.65 million, for the charter.
They also spent an additional Ksh52,650 on related charter expenses.
The lawyers now want Kenya Airways to reimburse these costs. They are also seeking a refund for the unused portion of the airline tickets.
The family paid Ksh596,450 for return tickets. The lawyers are demanding Ksh298,225, which represents half of the ticket cost for the journey the family could not complete on August 31.
Muite claims additional losses
Muite also claims that the incident caused him further financial losses.
He arrived in Nairobi one day later than planned and missed meetings scheduled for that day.
The lawyers have given Kenya Airways seven days from the date it receives the demand letter to resolve the dispute.
They want the airline to accept liability, reimburse the family’s expenses, pay general damages and provide a written explanation of how it handled the cancellation.
The family says it will rely on its rights under the contract of carriage, Montreal Convention, Consumer Protection Act and Civil Aviation Act.
The lawyers have warned Kenya Airways that they will take the matter to court if the airline fails to resolve the dispute within seven days.
“Take notice that unless Kenya Airways satisfactorily resolves this matter within seven days, we have mandatory instructions to commence legal proceedings,” the lawyers warned.
