Kenya retaliates. All Foreign Travellers From and Through UK Airports To Isolate For 14 days At Their Own Cost.

Key Facts

• Kenya has received the UK Government’s travel ban on Kenya with regret and disappointment.

• Reminds UK and other Vaccine producing countries that this virus did not originate form Africa.

• Reiterates Kenyan’s effort in containing the virus as one of the best and has been lauded by WHO.

• Requests that the United Kingdom shares vaccines noting that Kenya is aware that the United Kingdom has in bigger quantities than currently has use for.

• Alleges that the decision by the UK government does not reflect prevailing logic and scientific knowledge of the disease or the spread of the pandemic. Rather the decision seems to be motivated by a discriminatory policy against certain countries and peoples.

• Kenya has a genomic surveillance program and has been among the first in Africa to identify variant strains including the highly virulent UK and South African strains.

• It was through the Kilifi Research Center, that the World Health Organization approved the Astra Zeneca vaccine trials that were conducted in collaboration with Oxford University.

“This vaccine apartheid, coupled with the reckless calls for vaccine passports while not making the vaccines available to all nations, widens existing inequalities and makes it near impossible for the world to win the war against the pandemic. Vaccine producing countries like the United Kingdom must remember that this virus did not originate in Africa, it knows no geographic boundaries, neither has it existed long enough for humankind to understand what it will morph into in the future.“

Kenyan Foreign Ministry has expressed regret and disappointment at The UK government’s decision to “Red List” Kenya and to stop all travel from Kenya for those residents in Kenya, and those transiting through Kenya, to the United Kingdom.

The decision is particularly disturbing in light of the fact that the United Kingdom and Kenya enjoy a strong and long-lasting relationship embedded in a strategic partnership that has multiple dimensions including health, education, security, travel, trade, and people to people relations. The ministry said.

In response, the East African country retaliates the UK’s ban on travellers from Kenya, imposing a compulsory 14-day Isolation and two PCR test on all travellers coming from and transitioning through any UK airports to Kenya.

The Kenyan government accuses UK of irresponsibility in hoarding vaccine and using discriminatory polices without any scientific or logical reasons behind its decisions. It warns that it’s only through solidarity and mutual cooperation can the world successful combat the pandemic.

“Kenya believes that it is only through solidarity and collaborative partnership in responding to the crisis, that this pandemic can be brought to a close and new normal be allowed to emerge in its wake.

Sadly, however, Kenya continues to see, with deep regret, that vaccine producing countries around the world have begun practising a form of vaccine nationalism, possessiveness and discrimination, coupled with a vaccine hoarding attitude that can only be described as a form of “vaccine apartheid.”

The New Kenya UK Travel Policy

In response to the United Kingdom’s unilateral restrictions of travel from Kenya, the following measures will be enforced from midnight, 9th April 2021.

1. All passengers originating from or transiting through UK airports will now be required to go through mandatory 14-day isolation at a government-designated facility at their own cost upon entry into Kenya.

2. While in isolation, they will be subject to take two PCR COVID-19 tests, on day 2 and day 8 of their quarantine, at their own cost.

Exemptions From This Policy Includes:

1. Cargo flights between the two countries. These will continue to operate through specific protocols to be announced.

2. Kenyan nationals resident in the United Kingdom or transiting through United Kingdom airports into Kenya are exempt.