United State of America State Department on Wednesday declared that it is scrapping its travel warnings for specific countries, including Kenya.
The Trump administration had in the past warned against travel to Kenya, prompting complaints that such notifications were unjustified and damaging to the nation’s economy.
Kenya is now positioned in the second tier under the new system.
The US has been ranked as the top source of tourists to Kenya.
[caption caption="Tourists in a Kenyan Park"]
[/caption]
According to the Kenya Tourism Board's December report, more than 82,000 Americans visited between January and October of that year, compared with close to 81,000 arrivals from Britain.
Officials in the Kenyan government and the country’s tourism industry are likely to welcome the changes initiated by the Trump administration.
Explaining the revised US notification system, State Department official Michelle Bernier-Toth told reporters that “over the years, we’ve come to recognise that sometimes our various documents were not readily understood.”
“We also needed to make sure that the information was more easily understood, putting it into plain language making it clearer why we were ranking countries, why we were citing them as a threat or a risk,” she added.
Ms Bernier-Toth, the acting deputy assistant secretary for Overseas Citizens Services, noted that the method of assessing travel risks has not changed. Advisories are based on information from intelligence agencies, US embassies and host countries’ governments, she mentioned.
[caption caption="Former US President Barrack Obama in Kenya"]
[/caption]
However, the new advisory flatly warns against travel to the “Kenya-Somalia border and some coastal areas due to terrorism.”
The counties of Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Tana River and Lamu are included in the suggested no-go area, along with parts of Kilifi County north of Malindi.
