This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, the Chinese government has initiated an evacuation of its nationals from Kenya, with the first batch of 200 departing on June 16.
According to lawyer Isaac Okinyo, who represented the Chinese nationals, the evacuees had procured their tickets on Sunday night but were unable to board the China Southern Airlines plane due to social distancing rules.
Okinyo stated that the remaining 200 would leave in the course of the week, citing the need for social distancing and a new seating arrangement.
The evacuation comes after the Chinese nationals had earlier requested their embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to leave the country, but were declined. Okinyo subsequently moved to the High Court, where he obtained an order directing the Kenyan government to allow the evacuation on June 16.
Justice Weldon Korir issued the orders after Okinyo sought special permission to allow evacuation flights to take the Chinese nationals home. The lawyer served the Foreign Affairs ministry with the order last week and received a no-objection response on Saturday evening.
Earlier, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya had disputed a Nation Media Group article claiming that no flight would be leaving Nairobi to China on June 16. Xueqing Huang, chief of the information and public affairs section at the Embassy of China, wrote to Clifford Machoka, head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs at Nation Media Group, stating that the article was not factual.
The Chinese nationals are claiming that Kenya's health system cannot handle the spread of Covid-19, and that they have a better chance of treatment in China. They argue that Kenya lacks sufficient health facilities and equipment to manage coronavirus patients.
China was the initial epicenter of the novel coronavirus, with the World Health Organization alerted to several cases of unusual pneumonia in Wuhan on December 31, 2019.
The virus has since spread globally, infecting over seven million people and killing at least 432,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 dashboard.
