Kenya-Somalia: Flight Ban Lifted
The flight ban between Kenya and Somalia was lifted by the Kenyan government on Tuesday, in the wake of improved security measures on the Kenyan side. “The government has reassessed the situation and is satisfied that enough security measures have been put in place,” Kenya’s internal security minister, Chris Murungaru, said in a statement. Since the ban was imposed, the Kenyan government had put in place “appropriate security measures to ensure the safety of both passengers and cargo”, he said. A spokesman in the Office of the President, Kaunda Douglas, told IRIN that new surveillance equipment had been purchased and that inspections of all cargo and passengers had been significantly increased. “If there were any oversights before, there is a much deeper scrutiny of what is going out and coming in,” he said. He added that the Civil Aviation Authority had installed better surveillance to prevent any aircraft from landing illegally on air strips outside of the country’s legitimate airports. Full Story