Kenya Airways on Friday laid off 23 workers mostly in the managerial positions.

A statement from the National Carrier said the move was necessitated by the increasing fuel prices.

"The management of Kenya Airways has been looking at ways of mitigating the effects of its rising fuel and operational costs", The company's CEO Titus Naikuni said.

"As part of this exercise, we have looked at our current organisational structure throughout the network and decided to lay off 23 members of staff mostly in the managerial cadre. This decision is effective today", Naikuni said.

Naikuni said the exercise was done in accordance with the current labour laws.

"As recently announced, Kenya Airways is also looking at mitigating the effects of the increased fuel costs through an increase in ticket fares", he said.