Last week, as air­port oper­a­tions slowed across Kenya, the effects were imme­di­ate. Flights were delayed. Fam­i­lies were strand­ed. Car­go sat idle. Meet­ings were post­poned. Social media erupt­ed with frus­tra­tion. But beneath the chaos was a valu­able les­son: sys­tems only work when every­one participates.

Reports from the week’s meet­ings indi­cat­ed that on the first day of talks to resolve the dead­lock, offi­cials from the Kenya Air­ports Author­i­ty and oth­er rel­e­vant agen­cies were present, but rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Kenya Avi­a­tion Work­ers Union, KAWU, a key voice in the dis­pute, did not attend. No res­o­lu­tion was reached. Progress only start­ed when all par­ties lat­er sat together.

Clear­ly, align­ment does not imply agree­ment. It sig­ni­fies presence.

A close friend of mine expe­ri­enced the high cost of mis­align­ment in a deeply per­son­al way. He was in Mom­basa when the dis­rup­tion hap­pened. Months of plan­ning had gone into his trip. A closed-door inter­na­tion­al lead­er­ship sum­mit had invit­ed him as the keynote speak­er. Del­e­gates had flown in from var­i­ous coun­tries. Strate­gic con­ver­sa­tions were sched­uled, and deci­sions were to be made in the room.

When flights were delayed, he made a des­per­ate choice to take the SGR to Nairo­bi, hop­ing to catch his inter­na­tion­al con­nec­tion. Time was against him. He missed the flight.

The busi­ness ses­sion con­tin­ued with­out him, and nat­u­ral­ly, the agen­da moved for­ward in his absence. A room full of inter­na­tion­al del­e­gates, who had trav­eled specif­i­cal­ly to see him, sat in seats where his name was still on the pro­gram, but his voice was absent. I am sure his sto­ry is just one of thou­sands across the coun­try this past week, some with far more painful con­se­quences and less vis­i­bil­i­ty. That is the unseen cost of mis­align­ment. It’s not just incon­ve­nience; it’s about rep­u­ta­tion, trust, and missed opportunities.

Avi­a­tion is more than just trans­porta­tion. It encom­pass­es trade, tourism, exports, and investor con­fi­dence. It’s Kenya’s hand­shake to the world. When crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture becomes unre­li­able, the mes­sage to the econ­o­my is clear: risk has risen.

To under­stand what reli­a­bil­i­ty makes pos­si­ble, con­sid­er this: Dubai Inter­na­tion­al Air­port han­dled about 95 mil­lion pas­sen­gers in 2025. That is near­ly 11 times JKI­A’s annu­al traf­fic of rough­ly 8.6 mil­lion pas­sen­gers, accord­ing to avail­able reports. Such a scale is no acci­dent. It is achieved through dis­ci­plined sys­tems that oper­ate pre­dictably every day of the year.

We often talk about sus­tain­abil­i­ty using images of trees, car­bon, and cli­mate. But sus­tain­abil­i­ty is also about reli­a­bil­i­ty. It’s the cer­tain­ty that sys­tems will hold up under pres­sure. A nation that can­not ensure con­sis­ten­cy can­not promise growth, invest­ment, or trust.

If we are hon­est with our­selves, what does this moment require from us?

First, we must remem­ber that pres­ence acts as a pol­i­cy tool. If you’re not at the table, you lose influ­ence. For crit­i­cal sec­tors, struc­tured engage­ment needs to be for­mal­ized, with clear time­lines for dia­logue, auto­mat­ic medi­a­tion trig­gers, and a cul­ture that treats absence as a gov­er­nance risk.

Sec­ond, pre­dictabil­i­ty is like eco­nom­ic oxy­gen. Crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture needs con­ti­nu­ity plans. Min­i­mum ser­vice pro­to­cols, esca­la­tion pro­ce­dures, and real-time com­mu­ni­ca­tion main­tain pub­lic con­fi­dence even dur­ing disputes.

Third, incen­tives must be aligned before a cri­sis. Many fail­ures start qui­et­ly due to unre­solved griev­ances, weak inter­nal feed­back, and reac­tive lead­er­ship. Dis­ci­pline helps pre­vent drama.

Fourth, pain reminds us who gen­uine­ly bears the cost. When sys­tems fail, it is not only exec­u­tives who feel the impact. Farm­ers with per­ish­able exports see their val­ue decay by the hour. Tour oper­a­tors face can­cel­la­tions they can­not reverse. Stu­dents miss life-chang­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. Fam­i­lies lose mon­ey on non-refund­able tick­ets. Work­ers give up wages they count on dai­ly. And qui­et­ly, the nation­al brand takes a rep­u­ta­tion­al hit that takes much longer to recov­er from than the dis­pute itself.

Last week’s les­son is not about blame. It’s about design. Align­ment is not about win­ning argu­ments. It is about show­ing up to pro­tect every God-giv­en oppor­tu­ni­ty. When pres­ence becomes dis­ci­pline, progress fol­lows. May God help us strength­en that align­ment. Think green. Act green.