The Kenya Airports Authority yesterday demolished duty-free shops and lounges belonging to businessman Kamlesh Pattni at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Wilson Airport and the Moi International Airport in Mombasa.

At JKIA, 13 shops and 2 lounges were demolished.

Luxurious goods that included expensive perfumes, watches, clothes, travel bags, wines and whiskeys, cameras, iPhones, iPads were looted by goons who had allegedly been hired by KAA.

The shop attendants were denied access to salvage any goods as the group of men threw out the expensive items.

Some of the attendants said the men were brought in by KAA at 10pm on Wednesday night.

"These hooligans stole the expensive items like phones first. They are accessing the airport without passes and this is a breach of security. It is not punishing Kamlesh Pattni alone. We have lost our jobs and we should have been given a notice," said Bushra Khan, one of Pattni's employee.

The workers said the men they smoked some of the expensive cigars and drunk the expensive whiskeys as they carried some of the goods from the bonded warehouse. A spot check confirmed that customs officials, who are always present at the shops, were not around yesterday.

Ajis Khan, the night manager of the Diplomatic Duty free shop, said that Kamlesh Pattni had lost an estimated $10 million (Sh8.7 billion) worth of goods. "We have operated these shops since 1990. It is unfair to throw out our expensive items and allow hooligans to steal them. They have sprayed themselves with perfume, stolen cash boxes and drunk the whiskeys," he said.

Ajis said Pattni had gone to court and obtained an order to stop KAA from evicting him. He said KAA did not give them a notice to vacate the premises and wondered why they targeted August which is a high season when tourists come into Kenya.

"They should have given us a notice. Yesterday we were supplied with electronic goods worth Sh20 million. Now they are gone. Had we been told, we would not have ordered the goods," Ajis said.

Our efforts to get an official statement from KAA were futile as all their communication offices were locked.

Oglivy Public Relations, the company that handles PR for KAA, said the authority will not comment or issue any statement on the Pattni's eviction.

However, one senior employee of KAA said the lease to Pattni's Diplomatic duty-free shops expired at midnight of July 31.

"The idea was once the lease expires, throw out the goods and evict Pattni. We want to refurbish unit 1 and 2 to ease congestion at the airport," he said.

The employee said KAA had not received any court order stopping Pattni's eviction from the premises and the duty-free shops occupied 70 per cent of the space available for shops.