The governments of Kenya and Tanzania have accused the carriers of spreading “unfounded” allegations dubbed “civil unrest”.
The governments of Kenya and Tanzania have attacked KLM for spreading “unsubstantiated” claims after it issued an advisory warning about travel disruptions due to alleged civil war in the two countries.
The airline, which said flights could be canceled due to “civil unrest” from Friday to Monday, has amended its alert to point to an unspecified “local threat in Tanzania.” Mentioned.
Kenya’s Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said on Saturday that he had protested to airlines for “this baseless, false, insensitive and misleading information that paints Kenya in a bad light”.
“We will escalate this discussion through diplomatic channels,” he warned in a statement.
My statement regarding KLM’s false claims regarding civil unrest in Kenya. pic.twitter.com/10hbqsJK9C
— KIPCHUMBA MURKOMEN, EGH (@kipmurkomen) January 28, 2023
The Tanzanian government also criticized the recommendations, with Business and Transport Minister Makame Mubarawa saying there was no truth to the allegations.
“This statement is baseless, alarmist, unfounded, insensitive, insensitive and causes needless fear and panic,” he said in a statement, urging travelers to ignore the advisory. bottom.
The Air France-KLM-owned airline apologized to the Kenyan government on Saturday, saying the recommendations were “only intended for customers in Tanzania”.
However, it said the alert was “accidentally shared with customers in Kenya as well.”
Air France-KLM holds a 7.8% stake in Kenya Airways, Kenya’s national airline, and the government owns 48.9%.
Meanwhile, Kenyans on social media are calling for Nairobi to take action against the airline.
for @KLMmalice of @CAA_Kenya and Tanzanian counterparts @official tcaa KLM’s landing rights in both countries must be suspended for 14 days and fined $1 million.
— Ahmednasir Abdullahi SC (@ahmednasirlaw) January 28, 2023
KLM’s landing rights must be suspended indefinitely as soon as possible until they publicly apologize for their false claims about civil unrest in Kenya.
— Fadil (@Fadhilow) January 28, 2023