Kenya and the United Kingdom (UK) held the first meeting of the Joint Emergency Response Committee on the Coronavirus-related travel restrictions Thursday.
The meeting comes slightly over a week since Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amb. Raychelle Omamo and UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab set up the committee to explore ways to resolve ongoing travel restrictions between the two countries.
“The Committee agreed on the importance of the bilateral relationship and of resolving the negative effects of the restrictions, particularly movement of people and goods,” said Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Kenya and UK agreed to form the joint committee following an earlier move by the UK to include Kenya in its COVID-19 ‘Red List’.
The U.K. cited the spread of the South African coronavirus variant into Kenya as the main reason for blacklisting Kenya.
Following the UK’s decision to ban flights from Kenya, the Kenyan Government ordered the indefinite suspension of all international flights from and to the U.K. effective April 9, 2021.
The diplomatic tit-for-tat has since forced national carrier, Kenya Airways to indefinitely suspend its flights to and from London.
