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Nairobi yesterday suspended all inbound and transit passenger flights from the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) in retaliation, after Dubai banned all passenger aeroplanes from Kenya last week.

While taking the decision, Dubai cited issuance of dubious Covid-19 test certificates at the airports after some passengers from Kenya tested positive despite having been cleared at the points of departure.

In retaliation, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) issued the directive that became effective on Monday midnight for an initial period of seven days.

KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe confirmed that the authority had taken the action against Dubai in retaliation because Nairobi was unhappy with the move by the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.

Kibe said Dubai’s move will hurt operations that depend on direct and transit flights between the two countries, particularly tourism and trade.

“This is a reciprocal move as a result of what they did to us, banning inbound and on transit flights from our country,” Kibe told People Daily in a telephone interview.

He, however, clarified that the ban did not affect cargo flights.

Fake certificates

The decision will affect dozens of flights that had been booked to fly to Nairobi and inconvenience thousands of travellers.

KCAA intimated that it would refund air tickets for those who had already booked.

He, however, declined to comment on the reasons given by Dubai aviation regulator while canceling the flights.

Last week, Kibe was quoted blaming Dubai’s move on a “scheme involving some private medical testing centres that colluded with travellers to issue fake Covid-19 PCR results to aid their travel to Dubai”.

On December 20, 2021, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) announced a two-day ban on passenger flights from Nairobi and on December 29, 2021, Emirates Airline said it had “extended the suspension of its flights from Kenya to comply with the directive that was to end on December 24 until further notice”.

Following the ban, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the government was in talks with the Middle-East nation to reinstate flights and that all the officials at the airport conducting Covid-19 tests had also been replaced as part of the measures.

“We have replaced all officials who were conducting Covid-19 tests at the airports and given the new staff instructions on how they are to conduct the exercise….

We are currently negotiating with Dubai and talks are ongoing after we agreed that only staff in the ministry will be used to conduct the PCR tests,” the CS was quoted as saying.

Kagwe also disclosed that the government was undertaking an investigation on the matter with a view to bringing to book health officials who were involved.

Two days ago, the United States issued an advisory downgrading Kenya to level three, down from level one category that requires its citizens to avoid all non-essential travel to Nairobi following the surge in Covid-19 cases.

On Monday, Uganda relaxed the Covid-19 protocols which required travellers to the country to undergo mandatory Covid-19 testing at the points of entry at a cost of Sh3,600. 

Uganda had also reduced the validity period for the test to seven days, instead of 14 days leading to congestion at the Malaba and Busia borders. It has now relaxed the measures.