Vaccine Passports Will be Required Before Traveling out of the Country in 2022- CS Balala

Sam Mwaura April 22, 2021

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Vaccine Passports Will be Required Before Traveling out of the Country in 2022- CS Balala

Kenyans who wish to travel out of the country will from next year be expected to have a vaccine passport. Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala said the government is working hand in hand with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to develop the vaccine passport.

The proposed passport will be similar to the Yellow Fever vaccine certificate which is a prerequisite for Kenyans traveling to a majority of the countries.

“There will be a vaccination card just like the one for yellow fever being pushed by IATA . We are continuing to consult with them . At the moment we cannot say that people need to be vaccinated to travel. But soon it will be,” CS Balala said on Wednesday.

Balala said that most tourist source markets in Europe were vaccinating more than 60 percent of their adult population which means that tourism is likely to pick up soon.

“We are working hard to vaccinate as many Kenyans and all frontline workers in the Tourism and Hospitality to encourage more tourists to come into the country,” he added.

The CS shared that the recent lckdown measures had affected the tourism industry by 80 percent but called for patience from players in the sector who deemed the measures as punitive.

Kenya’s latest Covid-19 positivity is at 13 percent as the numbers continue fluctuating.