According to Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala, Kenyans traveling outside the country from next year will be required to have a vaccine passport.
The government is working in consultation with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to create the vaccine passport.
The proposed vaccine certificate will be similar to the yellow fever vaccine certificate that Kenyans use when traveling, facilitating their travel beginning in 2022.
Balala said that at the moment vaccination against COVID-19 cannot be a requirement to travel into and out of Kenya because most countries have not inoculated their population.
He noted that currently, the vaccine passport is not viable as only a few countries have achieved high vaccination rates for their populations.
“There will be a vaccination card just like the one for yellow fever being pushed by IATA. We are continuing to consult with them. Now we cannot say that people need to be vaccinated to travel. But soon it will be,” CS Balala said on Wednesday
The announcement was made during the launch of the vaccination drive of the hospitality and tourism sector to hoteliers, tour drivers, travel agents, restaurants food service, and bars employees in KICC, Nairobi.
CS Najib Balala added that with most of the country’s tourist source markets in Europe vaccinating more than 60 percent of their adult population, tourism is expected to resume soon
“They are working hard to vaccinate as many Kenyans as possible and all frontline workers in the Tourism and Hospitality to encourage more tourists to come into the country,” he added
“COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool in curbing the effects of the pandemic, which will eventually help tourism rise again.” the ministry of tourism said.
The vaccination drive will begin in Nairobi for the next 10 days and will then move to the other 4 counties within the one zone area (Machakos, Kiambu, Kajiado, and Nakuru), and eventually vaccinate all the hospitality and tourism front liners in Kenya.