Court orders evicted Mombasa port workers be allowed back to staff houses

Mombasa, Kenya: Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) workers who had been sacked, got a temporary reprieve Tuesday after Industrial Court ordered that they should be allowed to return to staff houses, from which they were violently evicted by armed police on Sunday.

The suspension of the eviction sparked celebrations and calls for the departure of KPA Managing Director Gichiri Ndua by thousands of workers, who jammed the court. They stood in solidarity with 28 Dock Workers Union DWU officials, who were dismissed and thrown out of their houses for supporting a strike called by the Trade Union Congress (TUC-Kenya) to protest new medical cover charges.