Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Omollo on October 28, 2014, 07:58:41 PM
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This one will be learning something of French double talk and proverbial treachery. She is unaware of the inter-European consultative diplomacy. Wait and see....
The government says it has successfully persuaded France to lift the travel advisory to its citizens visiting Kenya.
Kenya’s Ambassador to France Salma Ahmed on Tuesday said the travel warning had been lifted following “our active intervention on the issue.”
“I write to inform you that the travel advisory imposed by the French government to its citizens wishing to visit Kenya has been lifted,” she said in a letter to Foreign Affairs PS Karanja Kibicho on Tuesday.
“We managed to engage and lodge complaints through the meetings,” she added, indicating that her office met with advisors to President Francois Hollande, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Director of Africa Jean-Christophe Belliard.
“The lifting of the travel advisory not only sends a positive message to Kenya, but also is an opportunity for us to revitalise tourism promotion in France and Europe,” she added in a letter seen by the Nation.
ADVISORY ON WEBSITE
However on Tuesday evening, the French Embassy website still had an advisory dated October 2, 2014 which warns its nationals against travelling to the Lamu Archipelago and areas near the Kenya-Somali border.
“It is strictly advised not to stay in the Lamu archipelago and the surrounding areas (near the Somali border),” the Embassy said in the statement.
“Isolated hotels and resorts and more generally, all residential areas with direct access to the sea are directly threatened.”
The ban was not a blanket advisory to the whole of Kenya.
(http://www.nation.co.ke/image/view/-/2502998/highRes/862108/-/maxw/600/-/xws1sbz/-/PIX1.jpg)
On May 12, 2014, France had advised its citizens to avoid certain areas in Nairobi, Mombasa and Lamu.
This was in the wake of several terrorist attacks in these areas, as well as kidnappings suspected to be masterminded by Somali terror group Al-Shabaab.
The warning has been extended several times despite protests from Kenya.
In an earlier interview with the Nation, the Deputy Head of French Mission in Nairobi Mr Emmanuel Renoult had said that although the situation in Kenya as a whole did not discourage tourists from visiting, the Embassy was only advising its nationals from going to places deemed dangerous.
SOURCE OF TOURISTS
In Nairobi, these areas included Pangani, Eastleigh, Pumwani and Mathare.
France is a major source of tourists to Kenya after the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Germany and India.
A number of French companies have also invested in Kenya’s tourism sector at the Coast.
Lamu is where French national Marie Dedieu, 66, was abducted by unknown gunmen in 2011 and taken in Somalia where she died several days later.
This followed another incident in which a British national David Tebbutt was killed and his wife held hostage for nearly seven months.
The island has not experienced an attack for some time now.
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PR