While today from the announced general meeting of the Council of Ministers with the County Governors should come out some more precise indications on the continuation of the so-called "phase 2" of Kenya, in view of the likely unblocking of international flights (August 1) and curfew (August 6), some of the most important international airlines have announced from their sites or directly to the Ministry of Tourism of Kenya their intention to reopen commercial routes in and out of Kenya.
Secretary of the Cabinet of Tourism Najib Balala, Sunday, July 26, announced that Qatar Airways, Emirates, KLM, Air France and British Airways, are all ready to resume flights to the country.
British Airways, as announced by the same company, will resume operations to and from Nairobi from Saturday 1 August with a frequency of 4 flights per week.
The same frequency announced by KLM that together with Qatar Airways will reopen routes to the Kenyan capital from Monday 3 August.
For Qatar it will be a "full force" return, at least these are the intentions, with 14 weekly flights planned from now on.
Air France, on the other hand, will resume with more "shyness" from Thursday 6 August: only one weekly flight to Paris.
Balala is keen to stress that the flights will provide a boost to sectors of the economy, including tourism, although the country will have to be prepared and strict on the application of the Covid-19 guidelines for airports and travellers.
Yesterday's Ministry of Health bulletin reported as many as 960 new positive cases in the country and this certainly does not put in a good mood either those who are preparing to travel to Nairobi or that category of tourists prudent and psychologically tested by the pandemic emergency. Caution dictated by understandable fears is still predominant, even if the situation in Kenya, with regard to serious inpatients and deaths, is not alarming. The number of infections in the last 24 hours is in fact related to the swabs carried out (more than 8000) and compared to the few cases yesterday, the percentage per swab is considerably lower. Just as there are only 2 official deaths. Numbers, just numbers.
At this point deciding to reopen everything or not seems more a political decision than a decision to safeguard public health.