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This is a real straw clutcher, but I have three lines of thought.
Not sure I would have asked Kawasaki to try and diagnose this potentially life threatening problem as I imagine the first priority would be to make sure that they could not be implicated in any way, but I might just be being cynical?
So did they knock the steering head bearings out and have a look?
While very unlikely, it's possible that some foreign object picked that moment to drop into one of the bearings and lock it up and then jolted out on the rough stuff. It would not be inclined to move very much if stuck with grease and so may well never do it again. But it will still be in there somewhere if indeed that's what it is, and would have been from assembly time. Another thing to test would be to push cables and lines back as a headwind might.
I think the most likely explanation would be some piece of road debris being flicked up into the yoke area somewhere and wedging in to jam the steering.
You did report strong burning rubber, that could have been from a very recently disintegrated tyre which would probably not be that obvious on hot black tarmac. It would take just the right sized and shaped piece of tread to wedge in place, but after discounting aliens it could be possible?
One thing bothers me and might be just poor observation during a panic, is that moving or locking the bars to the right will cause the bike to turn left, so I am claiming that the bars were actually locked slightly to the left, not that it makes much difference, but might change where you look for a potential jamming.
My third line of thought might be slightly more worrying to you.
Many years ago my father-in-law had a bump into the bank in his new Ford. He claimed that the steering wheel became disconnected and he was unable to control the car. (he was teetotal). Ford could find nothing wrong with the car accept the minor damage from the bump. Moving forward, relatively soon after this incident, he was diagnosed with a very severe heart disorder. (Which sadly finished him off eventually!) It was generally accepted that he most probably greyed out whilst driving and as far as he was concerned the car was not responding properly to his inputs.
There are all sorts of medical conditions that will temporarily rob you of reality for a moment or two, low blood sugar, low oxygen, hyperventilation or a trapped nerve Etcetera etcetera. I hope she is in good health of course, but it might be worth having a think about other signs recently however subtle?
Failing all the above it could just be that the bike is possessed by the Devil?
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