Govt has issued free air tickets to Kenyans stranded in the US.
The Kenyan Embassy in Washington DC has come to the aid Kenyan residents stuck in the country to help facilitate their travel back to the country.
A statement by the Deputy Chief of Mission, David Kahiro Gacheru, on the embassy’s Twitter account on Tuesday, March 24, announced 20 tickets to Kenyans intending to travel back to the country.
The tickets would be on a first come basis.
These tickets, he stated, would be provided on a first-come-first-served basis and would only focus on citizens in urgent need of traveling.
He further announced that the embassy would facilitate the one-way travel of Kenyan citizens from the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
All those successful to be at Terminal 4 JFK Airport by 9:00 a.m. (4.00 p.m. Kenyan time).
The decision by the embassy came just two days after the announcement by the government that no international passenger flight will land or take off from Kenya effective Wednesday, March 25.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe in his address to the nation stated that the flight ban would apply to passenger planes but exclude cargo flights whose crew must adhere to strict guidelines and will be limited to three people.
Kagwe also announced that Kenyan citizens and foreigners with permanent residence permits arriving before the deadline would undergo a mandatory self-quarantine.
Government Spokesman Cyrus Oguna further shed light on the decision by the government not to send planes to evacuate Kenyans stranded in other countries.
The directive was in place for Kenyans wishing to return from countries that have already closed their borders or are on lockdown.
Any Kenyan wherever they are who is coming back must come back by Wednesday midnight. If they cannot come back within that period then they should remain wherever they are and obey those country’s regulations
He also added:
As of now, for Kenyans who are in Uganda and Uganda has these restrictions across the border, we will not evacuate them. It’s only for a while anyway they can stay there.