NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 7 – Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe says the government is in talks with Dubai to reinstate flights from Kenya following the ban imposed after numerous false-positive COVID-19 tests were presented at its airports.
Speaking to Capital FM News on telephone, the Health CS further stated that all the officials at the airport conducting COVID-19 tests have also been replaced.
“We have replaced all officials who were conducting COVID-19 tests at the airports and given the new staff instructions on how they are to conduct the exercise,” he said.
Kagwe indicated that negotiations with Dubai are at an advanced stage after the government agreed to use only Health Ministry officials to conduct COVID-19 tests.
“We are currently negotiating with Dubai and yes, talks are ongoing after we agreed that only staff in the ministry will be used top conduct the PCR tests.”
He urged those seeking to travel to Dubai and other countries to ensure they obtain their certificates from a registered government facility.
The Dubai Aviator regulator had pointed out that the middle eastern country had banned all inbound and transit passenger flights from Kenya because travelers were testing positive for Covid-19 after arrival despite carrying negative test results.
It is believed that the scheme involved a racket of corrupt officials from Ministry of Health who colluded with travelers to issue fake Covid-19 PCR results to aid travel to Dubai.
The Ministry is already undertaking an investigation on the matter with a view to bringing to book health officials who were involved in the shoddy deal that has cost Kenya millions of shillings in lost passenger revenues.
According to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), Dubai had no option but to ban passenger flights from Kenya because in a single day they could detect up to 20 false-negative COVID-19 tests.
The authority stated that the situation went out of hand after health officials in the Middle Eastern nation detected up to 73 cases of Covid-19 negative tests that were fake.
Dubai had announced a 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya on December 20, 2021.
On December 29, 2021, Emirates Airline said it had, in turn, extended its suspension of flights from Kenya to comply with the directive that was to end on December 24 until further notice.
However, the Kenyan suspension did not affect cargo freights and passenger flights from Dubai to Nairobi.
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