The EU has accused the State of failing to share security information, leading to a delay in the lifting of travel advisories.
During an interview at his residence in Nairobi, the European Union’s Head of Delegation in Kenya, Mr Lodewijk Briet, said the government is reluctance to share information with embassies.
As a result, he said, Kenya would have to wait longer before the travel bans issued last year by members of the EU are lifted.
The statement comes in the wake of a Kenya Association of Tour Operators’ revelation that the tourism sector has so far lost 21,000 jobs.
Mr Briet said that although there have been meetings between ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior Affairs and EU diplomats, not much has been achieved.
“It is difficult for an embassy to give advise to its country to lift a ban when it lacks sufficient information about what the government is doing to curb insecurity,” he said.
PERCEPTION
“There are sentiments that parts of the Coast are not safe and if this perception is not countered in communication between the countries concerned about its citizens and the government, it would be difficult to fight terrorism,” Mr Briet said.
He, however, said the slump of tourism is not as a result of the travel ban but because of terrorism and hopes things would return to normal as soon as communication is sufficient.
“I am hopeful that there would be a return to pre-crisis circumstances. The attacks last year did a lot of damage. It is important to understand that the harm has not been done by the advisories but by terrorism attacks,” he said.
The EU’s External Actions Services Managing Director for Africa, Mr Nicholas Westcott, said that the union is keenly following the debate on the controversial Security Laws (Amendment) Act that was passed by MPs.
Source: Daily Nation
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