This archive report was first published on 5 January 2022.
On December 20, 2021, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA) announced a 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya to the Middle East nation.
According to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) director-general Gilbert Kibe, the ban was due to a racket of corrupt officials from the Ministry of Health who colluded with travellers to issue fake Covid-19 PCR results to aid travel to Dubai.
Mr Kibe stated that Dubai had no option but to ban passenger flights from Kenya because in a single day they could detect up to 20 'false negative Covid tests.'
The situation went out of hand when health officials in the Middle East nation detected up to 73 cases of Covid-19 negative tests that were fake.
The Ministry of Health has launched a probe on the matter with a view to bring to book health officials who were involved in the shoddy deal that has cost Kenya millions of shillings in lost passenger revenues.
Emirates Airline extended its suspension of flights from Kenya to comply with the directive that was to end on December 24 until further notice.
The temporary suspension of operations came barely a few days after Dubai introduced new travel requirements for those coming on direct flights from Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
