Kenya Airways Suspends Flights To The United Kingdom

The diplomatic tiff between Kenya and the United Kingdom has taken another twist after Kenya Airways announced that it will be suspending flights to the United Kingdom starting April 9, 2021.

“The suspension is due to the directive issued by the Government of Kenya suspending all flights from the UK, effective midnight 9th April 2021 at 00:00 HRS GMT until further notice,” Kenya Airways said in a statement.

The announcement by KQ comes after the UK announced that it will not accept foreign nationals traveling from or via Kenya to the UK, including transit passengers who might only pass through JKIA, Nairobi.

Friday, the UK government said it would add Kenya to its so-called red list banning incoming travel to England citing coronavirus “variants of concern”.

The Department for Transport said the ban on visitors from Kenya, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Pakistan would enter force at 0300 GMT on April 9.

Read More:

• Kenyan Companies To Have Duty-Free Access To the UK In Post-Brexit Deal
• Kenya To Receive Ksh 8 Billion From the UK For 10,000 Houses
• The Effects Of Covid-19 To Kenya’s Economy

The announcement by the United Kingdom infuriated the Kenyan government that immediately issued a statement imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for citizens of the United Kingdom visiting Kenya. They are to be quarantined at their own cost in government facilities.

Kenya thinks for the UK to add Kenya to the red list is ironic given that the Covid-19 infection in the United Kingdom is higher than in Kenya. The number of deaths is scary and people are dying daily a hundred times more than in Kenya.

It is also ironic because the new variant of Covid-19 in Kenya was introduced by British soldiers who have their camp in Nanyuki. Under normal circumstances, it was Kenya that was supposed to put the UK on the red list and not the other way round.