UAE plane flying in the sky [photo: PM news Nigeria]
Kenyans cannot travel to Dubai yet, as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has retained Kenya in its travel red-list, despite removing five African countries from the travel restriction.
The five countries including Ghana, Angola, Uganda, Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, have regained admission to the country.
“With effect from January 13, Emirates will resume passenger services to and from Guinea (CKY), Cote d’Ivoire (ABJ), Ghana (ACC), Uganda (EBB) and Republic of Angola (Luanda),” a statement from the carrier’s website read.
According to the aviation regulator, Dubai had asked Kenya to put its house in order first before it could review the flight ban, which was reciprocated by Nairobi in kind last week.
At the heart of the conflict is travellers from Nairobi who were testing positive for Covid-19 after arrival in the Middle East nation, despite carrying negative test results.
According to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe, the dealing in the rogue Covid results involved corrupt ministry of health officials.
As the conflict escalated KCAA also barred all inbound flights from Dubai, in a ban that expires midnight, tonight.
Although Kenya had recorded a spike in Covid infections between November and December 2021, the country has, however, in the last one week recorded a fall in the positivity rate declining to 13 percent on Thursday from a high of more than 30 percent at the beginning of the year.
This comes as the World Health Organization labels a country to be a high risk, if the positivity rate rises above five percent and advises countries to consider restrictions if it remains above the limit for at least 14 days.