The governments of Kenya and Tanzania have hit out at KLM for spreading “unfounded” claims after it published an advisory warning of travel disruptions due to purported civil unrest between Friday and Sunday that could force flights to be canceled in the two countries.
Kenya’s transport minister Kipchumba Murkomen warned to escalate the discussion through diplomatic channels and protested the airline over unfounded false insensitive and misleading information that paints Kenya in a bad light.
Tanzanian minister for Works and Transport Makame Mbarawa criticized the advisory saying that there was no truth to the claims.
“This statement is baseless, alarmist, unfounded, inconsiderate, and insensitive and has caused unnecessary fear and panic,” he said in a statement, urging travelers to ignore the advisory”.
According to the airline owned by Air France-KLM which apologized to the Kenyan government on Saturday, the advisory was “only meant for our customers in Tanzania” but was erroneously also shared with their customers in Kenya.
Kenyans on social media have called for the government to take action against the airline, and suspend it for 14 days, with a fine of 1 million.
KLM ‘Unrest’ Travel Warning For Kenya, Tanzania Sparks Anger
I'm a senior member at Forsige covering topics on diplomacy and foreign policy relating to Asia and the World.