On Sunday, March 15, photos of an almost-deserted Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) surfaced online.
Images seen by Kenyans.co.ke show empty lobbies and hallways within the fourth busiest airport in Africa, with very few people in and around the vicinity.
The situation follows the government's directive to ban flights from areas around the world hit by the Coronavirus pandemic and majorly, confirmation of the country's first Covid-19 Coronavirus case on Friday, March 13.
The confirmation sent panic throughout the country with members of the public flocking retail outlets cleaning shelves of sanitisers, antiseptics and peculiarly, toilet papers, moments after the announcement by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.
'Patient zero' arrived in the country from the US on March 5, the report itself enough to compel fear regarding air travel.
Taking to social media, various netizens expressed different concerns regarding the state of the airport.
A section castigated the government stating that even the few people spotted at the airport in the images needed to be at home, arguing that a directive to ban all air travel should have been issued by the government way before the first Covid-19 case was confirmed.
One Gichohi argued that the government needed to completely abolish flights until the situation was contained.
"So flights are still coming in?? GOK should put its energy in preventing travellers into Kenya," Gichohi stated.
"Why are you still moving? Everyone should be on lockdown whenever they are to contain this virus," Faith Mwanda stated.
Other Kenyans lamented the devastating effects of travel bans on the local economy.
"Let's prepare for one of the worst economic recession in 2020 imports which serve 60% of the retail market now shut down," Kennedy Lagat opined.
"The implications of COVID-19 will adversely affect our economy," Ruth Edwin added.
In relation, a section adviced the government to put in measures to decongest matatu termini that majority of Kenyans use on a daily basis.
"It is not busy anymore. Everything is coming to a standstill. God Almighty it is you and none can rescue this situation,"Joshua Orango stated.
JKIA handles approximately 7.5 million passengers annually and over 342,000 metric tons of air cargo, according to the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA).
Kenya imports most of her electronic appliances and textile from China, with the Asian nation under lockdown and Kenya confirming her first case, businesses are sure to take a hit.
In September 2019, JKIA was ranked the second-fastest growing airport in the world cargo ranking by the Airports Council International (ACI) latest World Airport Traffic Report, which highlights top airports for passengers, cargo and aircraft movements.
JKIA was ranked second in the ‘Fastest Growing Airports (Handing over 250,000 metric tons of air cargo)’ category, after handling over 342,000 metric tons of air cargo in 2018, a 25% growth from the what was reported in the year 2017.
