Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs acting on the authority of President Uhuru Kenyatta, has issued some retaliatory measures against the United Kingdom for including the country in its “Covid-19 Red List” which bans travellers from countries with reported cases of the South African variant of the novel virus.
In a strong-worded statement to the UK government, the retaliatory measures to be implemented against the UK according to Kenyan authorities will kickstart on Friday April 9, 2021.
Some of the retaliatory measures to be taken include; the banning of passenger flights originating or transiting through UK airports for a month; passengers from the UK will be required to produce negative Covid-19 certificates and valid Covid-19 vaccine certifications; only cargo flights are exempt from the ban, but crew members will be required to present both a vaccination certificate and a negative PCR certificate, among others.
Kenyan authorities describing the decision by the UK government as ‘discriminatory’ and which lacked ‘logic and scientific knowledge of the disease or the spread of the pandemic,’ will have deep and far-reaching consequences on the Kenya-UK trade, travel, tourism, security and cooperation relationship.
Adding that, Kenya in building back better from a third wave of the pandemic, expected the UK government to have reached out with solidarity and support rather than punitive measures that are divisive, discriminatory and exclusive in their character.
Find below details of the press release of Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry reacting to the travel ban:
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