Tanzania to Lift Flights Ban by End of Day - CS Macharia

Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia speaking in Parliament
Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia speaking in Parliament
File

Transport CS James Macharia on Saturday, August 1, issued a statement on the banning of Kenyan flights into Tanzania.

Speaking at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the Transport CS stated that he had spoken to his Tanzanian counterpart and they had agreed to reverse the ban.

"I met virtually with the Tanzanian official and we expect the decision to ban flights from Kenya by TZ to be reversed by end of the day," he stated.

Watch the video courtesy of NTV:

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He added that there was no point at which Kenya had banned flights from TZ, noting that the guidelines given were related to health standards for individual countries.

"We managed to clear the issues we had. we never stopped their flights this minor issue has been sorted out," CS Macharia assured.

The Tranport CS stated that no traveller from any country had been banned from entering the country.

"We have not closed the airspace for any country or any traveller. What we have done is from certain countries we have some measures to review when they arrive. We shall be adding more countries to that list," he added.

He added that inclusion in the list would depend on how the countries were managing Covid-19 in their regions.

On his part, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe urged Kenyans to avoid unnecessary travel noting that the resumption of flights did not mean that cases had gone down.

On Friday, July 31, Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) stated that it had nullified the approval for Kenya Airways for three months, with the ban taking effect from Saturday, August 1 to October 24.

Director-General Hamza Johari stated that this decision was landed upon after they noted through a number of media reports, that Tanzanians would not be allowed to travel to Kenya.

"The authority regrets to inform you that, on a reciprocal basis, the Tanzanian Government has decided to nullify its approval for KQ flights between Nairobi and Dar es Salam/Kilimanjaro/Zanzibar until further notice," the statement read.  

File image of President John Pombe Magufuli (Tanzania)
File image of President John Pombe Magufuli (Tanzania)
File