Inside Africa: Kenya Speaks Out Against UK Travel Ban
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Nairobi hit back against London’s decision to add Kenya to its coronavirus travel “red list,” announcing its own measures on travelers coming from the UK
UK officials noted that this action was in response to the South Africa coronavirus variant that has surfaced in Kenya, claiming that the variant was spreading quickly across the country. This decision ultimately means that Kenyans and anyone traveling through Kenyan airports is banned from setting foot in the UK as of April 9.
The announcement was met with strong words of hostility by Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry, who labeled the ban as “discriminatory, lacking logic and scientific knowledge of the disease or the spread of the pandemic.” This decision came as a surprise to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “It's not like we have an out-of-control Covid situation in Kenya — we do not. It's not like we are not exercising great prudence and it's not like we are not managing the situation diligently here," said Macharia Kamau, who formerly served as Kenya's ambassador to the United Nations.
The UK's travel ban goes a step further — they noted that all travelers who have been in or through Kenya in the past 10 days of the bans prior to the ban will be refused entry into England. The move was reportedly made in order to get a handle on the UK’s domestic situation to mitigate the spread of the virus. “With over 30 million vaccinations delivered in the UK so far, the additional restrictions will help to reduce the risk of new variants -- such as those first identified in South Africa (SA) and Brazil -- entering England," the UK government's Department for Transport said in a statement while announcing the move.
The UK’s “red list” contains almost 40 other countries, many of these being African or South American nations. Though in spite of Europe currently experiencing a third wave of cases, no European states, including France, reside on the list.
Frustrated and provoked, Nairobi responded with its own measures by banning passenger flights originating or transiting through UK airports for the upcoming month. Passengers from the UK will be required to produce a negative Covid-19 test and valid Covid-19 vaccine certifications to be allowed entry in the near future. Kenyan citizens who reside in the UK and cargo flights are exempt from these measures.
Kenyan officials have even taken the event a step further, publicly declaring this action by the UK as a so-labeled “vaccine apartheid.”
“Kenya continues to see, with deep regret, that vaccine producing countries around the world have begun practicing a form of vaccine nationalism, possessiveness, and discrimination, coupled with a vaccine hoarding attitude that can only be described as a form of 'vaccine apartheid'," Kenya's Foreign Ministry said in a lengthy press statement, issued in response to the UK's travel ban. “This vaccine apartheid, coupled with the reckless calls for vaccine passports while not making the vaccines available to all nations, widens existing inequalities and makes it near impossible for the world to win the war against the pandemic," the statement argued.
Kenya is not the first African nation to make these sweeping claims. The global disparity in access to Covid-19 vaccines has caused widespread anger across the African continent. South African president and chair of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa, warned the masses during a World Economic Forum virtual meeting that richer countries in the international community are “hoarding” vaccines; the leader urged global action to ensure an equitable rollout to ensure medical equality across the globe.
Kamau notes that he too is not surprised at how things have played out globally in response to the ongoing pandemic, noting “we live in an unequal world.”
"Vaccines are a basic human right," he continued. "They protect lives, they enhance people's abilities to live their lives fully and allow nations to remain interactive in trading, which is really what is at the core of global development."
An urgent need for vaccines exists across the globe, and some Kenyans — including those within the state government — are highlighting the emerging vaccine disparity between London and Nairobi.
Kenya, a Commonwealth nation, has requested that the UK, its long-term international ally and partner, share its vaccines, with the Foreign Ministry statement noting: "Kenya is aware that the United Kingdom has [vaccines] in bigger quantities than it currently has use for." Kenyan officials have continually accused the UK of hoarding vaccines from lesser-off states, claiming that the world power possesses more than it needs at this point in time.
The UK — with a population of around 66 million people — has more than 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from eight suppliers on order. However, it has not received all these doses yet and not all of these candidates have yet been approved by the UK's medicines regulator. Compared to the UK's 31 million first shots administered, a total of over 422,000 Kenyans have received a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the latest figures from the country's Ministry of Health.
Kenya received its first shipment of vaccines -- 1.02 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot -- via the global COVAX program. The shipment was part of an initial allocation to Kenya of 3.5 million doses.
Meanwhile, the UK has seen far more deaths throughout the course of the pandemic than its Kenyan counterpart. Kenya's total reported Covid-19 death toll stands at 2,420, while the UK's total death toll has topped more than 127,000, according to its government data.
“We have demonstrated incredible responsibility here. We have kept our numbers impressively low. It's not by accident it is by design and by policy," Kamau said. "If you look at other parts of the world, even our own continent, you'll see that Kenya is a population of 50 million people and with its highly mobile population has still been able to do the necessary things."
Nairobi and London have enjoyed strong ties in the past. Within the past year, the two countries collaborated on a lucrative trade deal. Trade between the two countries reached $1.8 billion in 2019. Kenya has continually looked to the UK as an ally; Covid-19 travel restrictions will certainly continue to act as a test to these bonds.