In this work we study the strong decays of φ(2170) to final states involving the kaonic resonances K(1460), K 1 (1270) and K 1 (1400), on which experimental data have recently been extracted by the BESIII Collaboration. The formalism developed here is based on interpreting φ(2170) and K(1460) as states arising from three-hadron dynamics, which is inspired by our earlier works. For K 1 (1270) and K 1 (1400) we investigate different descriptions, such as a mixture of states belonging to the nonet of axial resonances, or the former one as a state originating from the vectorpseudoscalar dynamics. The ratios among the partial widths of K + (1460)K − , K + 1 (1400)K − and K + 1 (1270)K − obtained are compatible with the experimental results, reinforcing the three-body nature of φ(2170). Within our formalism, we can also explain the suppressed decay of φ(2170) to K * (892) K * (892), as found by the BESIII Collaboration. Furthermore, our results can be useful in clarifying the properties of K(1460), K 1 (1270) and K 1 (1400) when higher statistics data would be available.