Lift Travel Advisories

Jun 23, 2003

EAST AFRICA’S tourism industry has been hard hit by ‘travel advisories’ from the United States and United Kingdom warning their citizens not to travel to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

EAST AFRICA’S tourism industry has been hard hit by ‘travel advisories’ from the United States and United Kingdom warning their citizens not to travel to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Kenya is worst hit because the UK government has also blocked British Airways from flying to Nairobi.

This seems particularly irrational as other international airlines are all flying normally to Europe from Nairobi. BA passengers have to take a charter flight to Entebbe where they join the now daily flights to Heathrow.

Certainly al-Qaeda succeeded in blowing up the American embassy in Nairobi and Dar-es-salaam five years ago. Also a missile missed an Israeli plane in Mombasa last year but this did not cause the British government to stop flights to Kenya at that time. Why stop visitors now?

There is indeed a minimal threat of terrorist attack in East African countries but the same could be said of London and New York, or virtually anywhere in the world. Should East African governments advise their citizens not to travel to the USA or UK?

The truth is that malaria, HIV and bad driving pose a far greater danger to British and American citizens in East Africa than terrorism ever will.

Britain and the USA are over-reacting to the threat posed by al-Qaeda. It is no more risky to visit East Africa today than it was six months ago, or six years ago. The British and American government are waging a psychological war with al-Qaeda.

If they succumb to paranoia and maintain these advisories, they are losing that war. They should lift their travel advisories and also allow BA to resume flights to Nairobi.
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