Kenyans based in the US will now be able to re-apply for e-passports at the Kenyan Consulate in Los Angeles, California.

The move comes months after Paddy Mwembu, a Kenyan living in the US, launched a petition urging President Kenyatta to order the processing of digital passports at the Los Angeles consulate.

“The Kenya Consulate in Los Angeles has been approved by the Government to process the new generation ePassports,” the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, DC said in a statement on Thursday.

“As we embark on the process of setting up the infrastructure, we call on Kenyans to be patient as you will be advised on when the e-Passport system in Los Angeles is up and running.”

Mwembu, who lives in California, wrote a petition to the Office of the President saying nearly half of the Kenyans living in the US are on the west coast and that this justifies the need for a passport application centre on that side.

“Considering the distance and the cost of travel to Washington DC for processing of e-passport biometrics only, [it] fails to make economic sense. The distance to Washington DC is extreme and the total cost is prohibitive,” he said in the petition that has so far gathered 1,000 signatures from the diaspora community.

The consulate offers several services to Kenyans including the processing of birth certificates and identity cards. But they have to travel to Washington DC, some 4,300 kilometres from Los Angeles, to apply for the new generation passport.

When the government launched the e-passport in August 2017, it initially gave a deadline of September 2019 for everyone to ditch the old generation document.

But pressure from the public forced the government to extend the deadline to March 2021 and again to December 31, 2021.

In February, the Immigration Department said about 1.8 million Kenyans, mostly in the diaspora, had not replaced their documents.

In February, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said that starting January 1, 2022, the old dark blue passport will be null and void and no Kenyan will be able to travel internationally without a valid East African Community biometric e-passport.

Kenya has been phasing out the old-generation passports as part of a binding commitment to migrate to the new EA e-passport.

The digital passport has enhanced security features embedded in an electronic chip to minimize fraud, identity theft, forgery, and passport skimming.

Source: Nairobi News

At least 4.5 million people had their personal data exposed after an IT system used by Air India was subjected to a “sophisticated cyber attack”.

The airline was first notified of the breach in February, but only disclosed its involvement in the past week.

Details including names, passport information and payment details stretching back 10 years were accessed by the cybercriminals.

However, CVV/CVC numbers and passwords were not accessed, according to a statement.

The compromised software was operated by SITA Passenger Service System according to Air India.

SITA put out a statement acknowledging the hack at the beginning of March, but did not specify how many people were affected or which airlines had fallen prey.

Other major carriers were also affected, including Star Alliance members Singapore Airlines, New Zealand Air and Lufthansa.

Air India said that the incident “affected around 4,500,000 data subjects in the world” but did not specify how many were their customers.

The hackers managed to get their hands on data from 26 August 2011 to 3 February 2021.

The airline’s statement said: “Air India would like to inform its valued customers that its Passenger Service System (PSS) provider has informed about a sophisticated cyber attack it was subjected to in the last week of February 2021.

“While the level and scope of sophistication is being ascertained through forensic analysis and the exercise is ongoing, the service provider has confirmed that post incident, no unauthorised activity inside the PSS infrastructure has been detected.”

A second press release added that, after the notification of the hack, the steps taken included: “Investigating the data security incident, securing the compromised servers, engaging external specialists of data security incidents, notifying and liaising with the credit card issuers and resetting passwords of Air India Frequent Flyer Program.”

It added: “Further, our data processor has ensured that no abnormal activity was observed after securing the compromised servers.

“While we and our data processor continue to take remedial actions including but not limited to the above, we would also encourage passengers to change passwords wherever applicable to ensure safety of their personal data.”

Source: Sky News

Africa’s travel recovery will be fueled by substantial pent-up demand, according to the “Africa Travel Recovery, Opportunity & Risks Research Brief”, by Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics Company, written exclusively for Africa Travel Week (ATW).

Lockdown restrictions have suppressed a significant amount of demand, especially for leisure travel, and the easing of restrictions and continued vaccine progress will be essential to realise this latent travel demand, the report states.

While a more youthful population has minimised the impact of the health crisis in Africa, there are concerns regarding the region’s access to vaccines. However, the COVAX initiative has helped alleviate these anxieties by providing and campaigning for a more equitable distribution of vaccines.

While we wait for a return of international visitor arrivals, stymied by renewed coronavirus outbreaks and the emergence of 501Y.V2, first reported in South Africa, a strong domestic market and an uplift in short-haul travel will support the travel industry in the near-term, adds the report.

According to the report, domestic travel is set to account for 73% of total arrivals in 2021 – up from 55% in 2019. Reduced travel appetite for far-away travel will increase the short-haul share of international arrivals in 2021 to support markets which have been traditionally more dependent on longer-haul markets.

Lastly, continued infrastructure improvements, targeted tourism support and concentrated digital marketing campaigns could help stimulate future tourism growth. Infrastructure improvements and better use of digital platforms could help increase destination competitiveness. This could add to lingering demand for less-crowded destinations with outdoor activities and attractions, which will also be fuelled by a rise in more sustainable travel.

“While we grapple with the ever-changing environment, this Tourism Economics Report, compiled exclusively for Africa Travel Week, shines a positive spotlight on the potential for tourism to Africa. Our role as Africa Travel Week is to keep the interest in travel to Africa burning by providing a dynamic platform for stakeholders to reconnect as we work together at Making Travel Happen Again,” says Megan Oberholzer, Portfolio Director: Travel, Tourism and Creative Industries at Reed Exhibitions Africa.

Source: Travel Daily News

Namibia will host the United Nations World Tourism Organization Regional Conference on Strengthening Brand Africa for the Swift Recovery of the Tourism Sector from the 14 to 16 June in Windhoek.

The United Nations World Tourism Regional Director for Africa, Ms. Elcia Grandcourt, has been present in Namibia this past week undertaking a planning mission for the Conference, the Minister of Environment, Tourism and Forestry, Pohamba Shifeta said on Thursday.

Shifeta said it is expected that approximately 100 to 150 people will participate at the conference, mainly representatives from national tourism and destination management organizations, officials from ministries responsible for tourism from African countries as well as representatives of Micro and SMEs.

The conference will be attended by the Secretary General of the UNWTO and it is anticipated that several ministers responsible for tourism from various African countries will also attend the Conference.

“It is well known that the tourism sector has been one of the most hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic at the national and regional level. The closure of borders and cross border restrictions on travel over the past year or so has had a terrible impact on direct and indirect beneficiaries of the tourism sector such as hotels, communal conservancies, travel agents, airlines, vehicle rental companies, tour operators, hunting operators as well as restaurants and entertainment facilities targeting tourists. In Namibia alone, we have seen a reduction of approximately 90% in visitors to our top tourism attractions such as Sossusvlei and Etosha National Park” he said.

Shifeta said the theme of the conference; ‘Strengthening Brand Africa for the Swift Recovery of the Tourism Sector’, is fully in line with the International Tourism Revival Initiative announced by HE President, Dr. Hage Geingob in June 2020 and will represent another important step in reviving the sector here at home and more broadly at the continental level.

The conference will focus on national and regional branding to enhance the image of Africa as a tourist destination and for enhancing the digital marketing skills of micro and small and medium tourism enterprises, particularly here in Namibia, Shifeta said.

“All too often we see the image of Africa portrayed in a negative light in the media, we are painted as the continent that is home to wars, poverty and forced emigration. This conference will play an important part in positioning Africa as a tourism destination of choice based on its rich cultures, spectacular scenery and wildlife as well as other attractions. This repositioning will assist the Continent as the tourism sector reopens and recovers from the impacts of the pandemic,” he added.

Furthermore he said the conference will play a direct role in empowering and improving the marketing skills of micro and small and medium enterprises operating in the tourism sector, particularly here in Namibia.

The conference is being hosted by the ministry in collaboration with Namibia Tourism Board.

Source: Namibia Economist

Kenya has suspended flights to and from Somalia, just days after the countries restored diplomatic ties after a five-month break.  

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority sent a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stating that all flights between the two countries are suspended except medivac and United Nations humanitarian flights, according to a Somali official who did not want to be identified because he is not allowed to speak to media.  

The suspension is effective May 11 until at least August 9.  

VOA Somali service has seen KCAA’s notice, issued on May 10, which confirms suspension of flights. 

KCAA has not yet announced the reason for the suspension, but it comes a day after Somalia issued a notice reaffirming an earlier ban on flights carrying khat, also known as mirra, from Kenya.  

“Carrying Mirra to Somalia is still prohibited and the policy of the Federal Government of Somalia did not change regarding the transportation of Miraa to Somalia airports,” read a statement sent to airline operators by the Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) on May 9.  “Transporting Mirra without clearance from SCAA will be considered an unlawful act and violation of Somali airspace,” the notice added. 

Khat is a green narcotic stimulant grown in Kenya that is widely used in Somalia.  

Kenya’s suspension of flights downgrades relations that seemed to be on the upswing.  Just last week, Somalia announced it was restoring diplomatic ties with Kenya after mediation by the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.  

In December 2020, Somalia had cut diplomatic ties with Kenya, alleging constant violations of Somalia’s sovereignty and interference in internal affairs.  Kenya denied the accusations.  The countries also have an ongoing maritime boundary dispute over who controls Indian Ocean waters believed to contain large deposits of oil and natural gas. 

Kenya Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautiously welcomed the restoration of ties and said it was looking forward to normalizing relations in terms of trade, communication, transportation, people to people relations and cultural exchanges. 

Somali authorities initially suspended of all international flights in March 2020 after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country. The suspension on international flights was lifted in August but a ban on khat flights remained in place.  Officials in Somalia insisted the reason for maintaining the suspension is to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. 

However, last year Somalia started allowing flights from Ethiopia to transport khat. At least four flights carrying Khat arrive in Somalia daily from the eastern Ethiopia city of Dire Dawa, according to traders. 

The khat business has been lucrative for Kenya farmers. Before the suspension, as many as 15 Kenya flights carrying the narcotic stimulant used to make deliveries in several regions in Somalia per day. The continued suspension denies Kenya farmers millions of dollars in earnings from business with Somalia. 

Somalia activists are pressuring the federal government not to lift ban Khat as they argue the stimulant is associated with poor health and loss of hard currency.

Source: VOA News

The government will now require all travelers from the UK to have a valid Covid-19 vaccination certificate, a Covid-19 negative PCR test and must self-isolate for 14 days on arrival.

In a statement, the government said all passenger flights, whether commercial or charter, between Kenya and the UK will be suspended.

The suspension will be reviewed by the Government of Kenya within four weeks.

“All UK citizens and residents travelling to Kenya from the UK via any route who have a valid Covid-19 PCR test, but do not have a valid Covid-19 vaccination certificate, will be subject to 14 days mandatory quarantine on arrival at a Government of Kenya facility at their own cost. All travellers under the age of 18 will only require a certificate of Covid-19 negative PCR test to enter Kenya,” the statement added.

At the same time, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said those traveling from Brunei, Thailand, Kuwait, Czech Republic and Pakistan should be in possession of a negative PCR-based Covid-19 test result conducted within 96 hours before travel and not display any flu-like symptoms upon arrival.

“They should provide evidence of their booking for the quarantine locations 24 hours before boarding,” it added.

Last month, UK banned passengers travelling from Kenya from entering the European country starting April 9 to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

Kenya was among four counties that have been added to UK’s red list amid concerns about new Covid-19 variants.

In retaliation, Kenya suspended flights between the two countries and banned all flights from the UK, effective April 9, in response to London’s move to bar Kenyans from its territory over the spike in Covid-19 cases.

The tiff between the two countries began after the UK added Kenya to its ‘red list’ amid concerns about new Covid-19 variants, and banned passengers from Nairobi.

“Of the average 550 people that travel from Kenya to the UK each week, a significant number are testing positive on Day 2. Nearly a third of those testing positive have been carrying the B 1.352 variant which originated from South Africa,” the British High Commission said in a statement then.

Following this, London stated that only British, Irish and third-world country nationals with residence rights in the UK will be allowed. Nairobi termed the announcement a “regrettable decision”.

“The decision will have deep and far-reaching consequences on the Kenya-United Kingdom trade, travel, tourism, security cooperation among other sectors,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

And as a compromise, the UK had proposed to Kenya to implement rapid testing at airports to weed out fake or invalid travel certificates.

If Nairobi implements this, it could join Ghana which already tests passengers at airports with spot results at a cost of about Sh2,500 ($25) per person. But implementing the system could take at least a month, and its viability has yet to be discussed by the Kenyan government.

Kenya is not yet giving Covid-19 certificates, but recipients have been receiving text messages notifying them on the next date of vaccination, and batch number they have been vaccinated with.

The UK has issued vaccination cards to recipients. But the targeted group includes people who are 50 and above, health and social workers, vulnerable groups and those with disabilities.

The vaccination card indicates the type of vaccine a person has been inoculated with. Pilots and crew have not been listed as essential groups to receive the vaccine, nor the certificates.

Officials said the crew may have to wait or try their luck in Kenya.

Source: Nairobi News

Nairobi — Kenya will waive work and business permits for investors from its neighbour Tanzania, President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday, as his counterpart made similar overtures in a thawing of often frosty relations between the two countries.

Kenya, east Africa’s biggest economy and one of its most liberal, and Tanzania, which still imposes fairly tight capital controls and is the region’s second-largest economy, have long tussled for influence.

“We would like to see many investors from Tanzania coming to do business in Kenya. And I want to say this, Tanzanian investors are free to come and do business in Kenya without being required to have business visas or work permits,” Kenyatta said during a Kenya-Tanzania business meeting in Nairobi.

“The only thing you will be required to do is to follow the laid down regulations and the laws,” he told the meeting, attended by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Relations between the two neighbours have been at times testy and worsened under Tanzania’s late president John Magufuli, with officials at times trading barbs over trade restrictions, and in 2020, over Covid-19 compliance.

Hassan, who was sworn in in March after Magufuli died, said her government had embarked on tax and other business reforms to make it easier for Kenyan investors to operate in Tanzania.

Hassan’s office said late on Tuesday the two governments had also pledged to speed up completion of electricity transmission and road construction projects Kenya and Tanzania are jointly carrying out.

The two governments also agreed to speed up groundwork for the construction of a natural gas pipeline linking Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam and Kenya’s port city of Mombasa.

Source: Reuters  

Airlines are expected to make significant losses this year as International Air Transport Association (IATA) revises its forecast issued in December because of challenges in containing new coronavirus variants and slower vaccination in some regions.

IATA is projecting a post-tax losses of Sh5.1 trillion ($47.7 billion) in 2021 from their initial Sh4 trillion ($38 billion) projection in December.

“Financial performance will be worse and more varied this year than we expected in our December forecast, because of difficulties in controlling the virus variants and slower vaccination in some regions,” said IATA.

According to IATA, large airlines have raised sufficient cash to cover for these losses with the aviation sector expecting a cash burn of Sh8.6 trillion ($81 billion).

“Many smaller airlines haven’t and will need government aid or to raise more cash from banks or capital markets – adding to the industry’s debt burden and balance sheet leverage problem,” the agency said.

Kenya Airways and other regional carriers such as RwandAir have suspended flights to India due to high cases of Covid-19 in this Asian country.

The airlines woes will be compounded with the rising cost of fuel, which is expected to have a negative impact on the airlines.

“We now expect much higher fuel prices with jet at $68.9 per barrel from $49.5 and oil rising to $64.2 per barrel from 45.5 previously as the stronger global economy pulls all energy prices higher,” IATA said

The worst point of the impact of Covid-19 on airline profitability was in the second quarter of last year, when operating losses were more than 70 percent of revenues. Cost cutting and a strong cargo business helped reduce losses in the second half of 2020.

However, many airline costs are fixed over short periods and hard to avoid. As a result, losses were reduced only to around 50 percent of revenues by the last quarter of 2020.

Sharp decline on summer bookings saw Kenya Airways losses nearly triple to Sh36.2 billion in the year ending December 2020 as the carrier sank deeper into the red following a slump in passenger numbers occasioned by Covid-19.

IATA said cargo remains a very strong business for airlines in 2021 as the strong economy and restocking is driving an increase in share of world trade, with 13.1 percent growth in volumes, which is higher than the World Trade Organisation forecast growth for global trade of eight percent.

African airlines’ cargo demands in February increased by 44.2 percent compared with the corresponding period in 2019 marking the strongest growth of all the regions, according to International Air Travel Association (IATA).

Source: Business Daily

Expo 2020 Dubai is set to become one of the emirate’s greatest success stories, according to top officials.

Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and director general, Expo 2020 Dubai and Helal Saeed Al Marri, director general of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), have hailed Dubai’s confidence and vision and its unwavering commitment to host the next Expo, which opens in October following its postponement from last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Their confidence follows a successful face-to-face gathering of more than 370 delegates in Dubai this week, the final meeting of the International Participants Meeting (IPM) prior to the launch.

Al Hashimy (pictured below) said: “Since the planning stages, we have worked hand-in-hand with DTCM to deliver an Expo that will attract visitors from across the planet and make Dubai and the UAE proud.

“As the world changed, we too have adapted, and thanks to our collaboration with DTCM, we have created an Expo that will delight and inspire explorers and entrepreneurs, children and grandparents, casual tourists and the curious who want to experience the future – now.”

Al Marri added: “Since inception, Dubai has exemplified what it means to succeed against all odds, rising with dignity and determination to become an economic engine and a vibrant hub for travellers from all over the world. Setting new benchmarks is engrained in our ethos, and to this end, we see Expo 2020 Dubai as a global pivot given where we all are today.

“No one could have anticipated how Covid-19 would alter our realities so definitively, and yet, like the rest of the world, Dubai and Expo 2020 paused, reflected and persevered through unprecedented challenges, with our innate indomitable spirit, to re-emerge stronger and more optimistic for our collective future.”

Implementing a phased economic reopening, Dubai began welcoming tourists again in July – when the city’s first in-person, post-lockdown event was held – and has since remained open to the world, reinforcing the renewed need for global business and leisure travel.

Al Marri (pictured below) said: “Dubai has successfully deployed its phased economic reopening that prioritised safety while minimising the impacts of the pandemic – an approach that sees us well-positioned to lead a post-pandemic recovery.

“As a thriving tourist destination and a global centre for the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) sector, we look forward to welcoming more of the world’s business and leisure travellers to Dubai over the coming months.”

The new Dubai Exhibition Centre, which hosted its inaugural event at the recent meeting of Expo’s international participants, will be a signature venue during Expo 2020 and through its legacy, he added.

The 45,000 sq m multipurpose venue is already 80 percent booked for the duration of Expo and will play a fundamental role in attracting domestic, international and business travellers.

The exhibition centre is among the permanent buildings that will be retained after Expo 2020 closes its doors, forming part of District 2020, a new urban innovation ecosystem and model global community of the future.

Running from October 1 until March 31 2022, Expo 2020 will coincide with the 50-year anniversary of the founding of the UAE, and highlight the country’s role as a global connecting hub for people, ideas and innovation.

Source: Arabian Business