Kenya suspends all inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE

The ban follows Dubai’s ban of all passenger flights from Kenya last week over what is said to be fake COVID-19 tests.

"Inbound and transit passenger flights from UAE are suspended for a period of seven days. We are doing this to reciprocate a ban on Kenyan passenger flights to UAE," KCAA Director-General Gilbert Kibe told the Business Daily on Tuesday.

He stated that the ban took effect on Monday, adding that it does not affect cargo flights from Dubai into Kenya.

In banning flights from Kenya, the The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority stated that travellers from Nairobi were testing positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in the country whereas they carried negative test results.

“They banned flights from Kenya due to many false negative Covid-19 PCR results. The Ministry of Health is investigating and will report findings soon. Several other African countries were red listed as well,” Kibe said last Wednesday.

He added that authorities discovered a scheme involving rogue private medical testing centres that issued fake COVID-19 PCR results to aid their travel to the Middle East country.

The latest comes just days after the US put Kenya in the Level 3 travel advisory category, warning its citizens against any non-essential travel to the country due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The US had previously placed Kenya in Level 1, which only advises its citizens to adhere to regular protective measures such as use of face masks.