A couple of years ago, I watched on YouTube as a scraggy chap was caught on a certain airport’s CCTV helping himself to a good wrist watch at the security screening.
Every time, I find myself removing my belt and wrist watch, I get a panic attack that the fellow next to me may not be up to any good. Consider that nowadays you have to drop your smartphone and wallet and the real risk of losing something quite precious becomes apparent at any airport worldwide.
Mid this month, I was on a local flight via through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and I found two Kenya Airports Authority officers with a lost wrist watch.
The officer at the screening machine had sent his colleague to locate the owner of the watch, but they had not found him/ her. A quick glance at the watch showed that the timepiece was not an ordinary one that you can get a bargain for while you navigate Nairobi’s notorious traffic gridlock.
I lingered on there long enough to see what they would do with the watch, but there seemed no standard operating procedure for it — at least none was evident from the conduct of the two officers as they looked clueless on what to do next.
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Every time I let go my precious earthly possession during the screening at the airport, I have to be sure that the minute I walk through through machine, it will not break out into any of those annoying shrieks.
This is because a rescan means you have to walk back at the end of the queue, rummage through your pockets to find the offending metallic thing before you can be allowed to access the check-in area.
Meanwhile as you do this, your smartphone, wrist watch and wallet await you at the other side.
I have keenly been watching our KAA personnel and none seems to be bothered by a potential loss of personal belongings.
Their brains are wired to be just on the lookout for the offending beep of the screening machine, once you are past the machine they either assume you are a saint or you are the Pope’s first cousin or they really not bothered by customer experience at the airport.
Okay, I know most hotels and pubs in many Kenyan cities and towns will warn you that you take care of your personal belongings while they doll out a disclaimer distancing themselves from you in case of a misfortune.
But the international airports within our borders have to be better than my local pub in terms of customer needs and sensitivity.
KAA’s motto is ‘Setting our sights high’ but it seems it has set its trust among passengers quite high. It rides on a matter of trust and personal convictions, but in the world we currently find ourselves in, truth and integrity are fast becoming extinct.
Most airports worldwide run elaborate Lost and Found desks.
They have organised online systems where people can log onto a portal and see whether their lost item have been listed there.
Upon finding them at the portals, there are fool proof procedures to establish ownership and then the eventual posting or handing over of the item.
When I visited the KAA website, I found out they do not have a dedicated tab on ‘lost and found’ despite the fact that many items are left behind, lost or misplaced at the airport by travellers.
The only information on lost and found items was stashed at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Even then, it is not helpful as it does not have any information but tells the user that “the page you have requested is not available on this website. Please go to www.kaa.go.ke and browse the Kenya Airports Website appropriately.”
The million dollar question is; how are passengers travelling through Kenyan airports supposed to get their lost items back?
TWITTER: @tonyngare
