U.S. citizens have once again been warned against nonessential travel to Kenya as a result of “heightened threats from terrorism and the high rate of violent crime in some areas.”
The most recent travel alert, issued this month, highlights information received about potential terrorist threats aimed at the U.S., Western and Kenyan interests in the East African nation.
“Terrorist acts can include suicide operations, bombings, kidnapings, attacks on civil aviation and attacks on maritime vessels in or near Kenyan ports,” the alert said. Further attention has been drawn to attacks in Kenya’s North Eastern Province, bordering Somalia, as well as “sporadic violence, protests and clashes” in the country’s Eastern province; however, the latter is not directed at foreigners.
While the current U.S. State Department and U.K. Foreign Office alerts are perceived by Kenyan operators to be hugely damaging to tourism, the advisories do play an important role, ensuring that tourists are aware that the government that has issued their passport has concerns that could affect their safety when traveling abroad. Indeed, governments have a "duty of care" to provide such information, said African Travel and Tourism Association CEO Nigel Vere-Nicoll.
“Tourists are at liberty to heed the advice as they wish. However, in circumstances when a ‘nonessential’ travel warning is issued tourists would be extremely ill-advised to travel to that area; if they got caught up with the specific threat that the advisory contains, it is likely that both their travel and even life insurance could be invalidated,” he said.
Over the years, Kenya has consistently been designated with a travel warning from the U.S. State Department, said Jenny Mikkelson, vice president of sales at tour operator Travel Beyond.
“However, the allure and worldwide awareness as a top safari destination hasn’t stopped travelers from wanting to visit," she said. "We find most of the people interested in visiting Kenya are seasoned travelers, and they have already done their research. They know many of the problems stem from neighboring countries like Somalia and that the major tourism areas are far from the border. As a result, we have not seen clients canceling their trips because of the new advisory.”
Mikkelson said travel agents should work with a reputable tour operators and ground handlers.
“Reputable partners will also have an established action plan if some unforeseen event should impact the tourism areas," she said. "We often tell clients: ‘Would you stop going to Yosemite because there were issues in L.A.?’ This is an easy analogy they can quickly understand.”
Travel Beyond monitors daily developments in Kenya.
As of last week, "we have no problem recommending this beautiful country to international travelers," Mikkelson said. "The only exception would be if the client is new to international travel or they are a cautious traveler. If their apprehension level is higher than normal there is no point recommending a trip outside their comfort zone.”
Kenya’s most popular tourism destinations remain the safari areas in southern Kenya along the Tanzanian border and resort destinations such as Lamu and Mombasa in the south, the former being off-limits to U.S. Government officials.