No, you still won’t be able to fly into Kenya from Dubai or any parts of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). That’s because the air-travel impasse between both countries has taken another turn for the worse.
Business Insider Africa gathered that Kenya decided to extend its retaliatory ban on all passenger flights from the Emirates by one more week. The decision followed Dubai’s refusal to remove Kenya from its travel red list.
The backstory
Recall that back in December 2021, the UAE had placed a temporary ban on all passenger flights from Kenya after discovering that Kenyans were allegedly entering its borders with fake COVID-19 test results. In response to this, the East African country retaliated by suspending all inbound and transit passenger flights coming in from the Middle Eastern country.
Apparently, the move by Kenya was intended as a temporary one. The plan was to reverse the ban once the UAE removes Kenya from its red list. But while Dubai did remove other countries (including Uganda) from its red list earlier this week, it left Kenya right there.
Kenya gave an ultimatum to be removed from the UAE’s red list
On Monday January 17, 2022, the Director-General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Gilbert Kibe, disclosed that he had reached out to his counterpart in the UAE and given an ultimatum for his country to be removed from Dubai’s red list.
“I have corresponded with the director-general of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and I’m waiting for his feedback before the close of business today (yesterday). If they don’t respond before 5 p.m. today (Monday), I will extend Dubai–Nairobi passenger flight suspension effective midnight,” Kibe told Business Daily.
Apparently, the UAE failed to adhere to this ultimatum, which was why the KCAA Director-General issued an order extending the ban on all inbound and transit flights from Dubai till January 24, 2022.
In the meantime, it is unclear how soon both countries can resolve this impasse. The unfortunate thing, though, is that the situation is already affecting many Kenyans; including those planning to travel to Dubai and those returning to Kenya from different parts of the world.
An affected traveler who recently reached out to Business Insider Africa, complained the situation has seriously affected his travel arrangements from the US back to Kenya. The affected individual earlier planned to fly with Emirates Airlines from the US to Kenya, transiting through Dubai. Right now, he is worried that the impasse could affect this arrangement.
Credit: Business Insider
