Kenya fumes as Western security warnings drive tourists out
Thu May 15, 2014 6:01pm GMT
* Hundreds of tourists quit Indian Ocean resorts
* Britain, U.S. alerts issued after series of attacks
* Tourism already "on its knees" - president
* Officials say visitors safe, know of no imminent threat (Adds tourists'
quotes, 2013 visitor arrivals)
By James Macharia
NAIROBI, May 15 (Reuters) - Kenya rebuked Britain, the United States, France
and Australia on Thursday for issuing warnings about travel to the east
African country, while hoteliers said at least 400 tourists had checked out
of hotels along the Indian Ocean coast.
Kenya called the alerts "unfriendly", saying they would increase panic and
play into the hands of those behind the gun and grenade assaults that have
hit the capital Nairobi and the coastal resort of Mombasa.
Explosions in both cities on the weekend of May 3-4, one of them at a luxury
seaside hotel, killed seven people, although no one was hurt in the hotel
attack. Kenya blames the blasts on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al
Shabaab.
The Islamist movement killed at least 67 people in a gun and grenade raid on
a Nairobi shopping mall last September, claiming it as revenge for attacks
on its fighters by Kenyan troops in Somalia.
The warnings and departures by tourists from hotels along the popular coast
are further harming Kenya's tourism sector, which President Uhuru Kenyatta
has said is "on its knees" following the deadly attacks.
Britain told its citizens to avoid Mombasa, and the United States cited
hotels, nightclubs and malls as possible targets.
Australia urged its citizens to reconsider trips to Nairobi and Mombasa "due
to the high threat of terrorist attack and high level of crime". France
warned of an elevated risk in Kenya, especially in those cities.
Karanja Kibicho, principal secretary at Kenya's foreign affairs department,
said the advisories "are obviously unfriendly acts", and assured tourists
they were safe while visiting the country.
Kenyan authorities say they have beefed up security after the attacks, and
deported foreigners without proper documents.
"The threats are perpetual, we are at war. But we have not received any
specific threat on the hotels," said Interior Ministry spokesman Mwenda
Njoka.
But tourists were still leaving. At least 400 checked out of their hotels,
heeding the travel advisories, according to Sam Ikwaye of the Kenya
Association of Hotelkeepers and Caterers. "We fear many more will leave,"
Ikwaye told Reuters.
DEPARTURES
Planes had been chartered to fly out the departing tourists.
Augustine Conall, a British national, told journalists at the Moi
International airport in Mombasa, he had cut short his three-week holiday by
a week, worried that his insurance would no longer be valid.
"Our families are also worried and are calling us and telling us to go
back," he said.
Another Briton, Matilda Evan, said: "Six days of my holiday have gone to
waste just like that. But again, when your government tells you to leave for
security reasons, what else can do you do?"
She was in Kenya for a third time, travelling with a group of eight female
friends. All were going back.
Tourist arrivals in Kenya fell 15.8 percent to 1.49 million last year as
security worries kept visitors away. Britain is the country's biggest source
of visitors.
Tourism is one of Kenya's biggest foreign exchange earners, employing
150,000 people. Travel agents said they hoped other destinations in the
great Rift Valley and around Mount Kenya would still attract visitors.
Western diplomats have privately said Kenyan security forces - which receive
aid and training from the United States, Britain and Israel among others -
are weakened by inter-agency rivalries that hamper intelligence work.
(Additional reporting by Joseph Akwiri in Mombasa; Editing by Mark
Trevelyan)