Kenyans wanting to leave China given Ksh.80k one-way ticket option

The Ministry of Foreign affairs has clarified its position on the facilitation of Kenyans living in China who want to come back to Kenya in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Officials at the Kenyan Embassy in Beijing issued a notice on Thursday saying Kenyans who will be able to buy a plane ticket will depart from China on May 1.

While insisting that the facilitation was not an evacuation, the notice said that Kenyans willing to travel back would be charged Ksh 80,468 for the one-way trip from Guangzhou to Nairobi.

Anyone flying on the chartered flight will be required to be a Kenyan passport holder and will also be subjected to the laws of the People’s Republic of China as pertains to immigration.

Those willing to be on the flight back home have been asked to urgently send their bio data and Chinese visa pages of their passport to info@Kenyaembassy.cn for processing.

At the same time, Kenyans returning home will have to prove they are free of the novel coronavirus which means they will have to be certified by Chinese medical authorities.

Once they are flown out of the country, they will be required to move into quarantine for 14 days, upon landing in Nairobi.

The decision to facilitate the return home comes in the wake of increasing public pressure both at home and among the diaspora community for the government to rescue those stranded in China.

The African community living in China has hitherto complained of being maltreated by Chinese authorities imposing tight lockdown measures to avert the spread of the coronavirus.

Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously admitted some of its nationals were victims of the controversial policy, now criticised as racist.