Kenya visit leaves sour
memories
Kenya after the elections. Without
wishing to undermine the effort of the new Government to enhance development, a few
isolated incidents from my last visit about two weeks ago somehow neutralized my earlier
positive view.
Take Kenya Airways. The smiles and professional attitude that were earlier present were
missing this time. On our outbound flight, there was a smaller aircraft and the Business
Class section just did not look like one. It was obvious that seats had been removed to
create more space in the front and the sight of the floor was rather pathetic.
The return flight had a fine aircraft but the food was real bad and instead of being
offered a choice, passengers were offered one rather repulsive menu. The sad part was that
behind the curtains, some crew members had a fine steak meal which was never offered to
passengers.
I also saw a few trays from the kitchen go behind to the economy class section. Unless
economy class passengers were served meals on the short flight, the trays that went behind
must have been shared by the crew members at the back. In any case the few trays that went
back would not have sufficed for all the economy class passengers!
As a frequent traveler to Kenya, I have noted that when any inbound flight to Tanzania
from Kenya carries passengers from a connecting flight overseas, the food on board is
superb. This of course is to appease tourists on the status of the airline especially
after it joined hands with KLM.
It is difficult to judge an airline from a few flights but if this is a line of
approach that crew adopt to save food costs, this is a wrong attitude. African airlines
should feel proud serving its people and should realize that their survival depends
equally on local travelers as it does on overseas travelers.
In Kenya, I noted that tourism was at its knees threatening to wipe out the lifeline of
an estimated 3 million people. Such a slump has not been witnessed before, not even in
1997 when the so-called ethnic violence flared in Likoni in Mombasa.
One could sense an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair among the hoteliers and their
employees. Hotels which have not closed down have had to lay off staff or force them to
agree to a 50 per cent cut in salaries to cope with the grim situation.
Suppliers too have been affected. Hundreds of fishermen, butchers and vegetable farmers
are unable to sell their produce as the hotels which provided a ready market, have either
closed down or have cut down their requirements. Also affected are taxi drivers who
sometimes resort to ploys to woo passengers, particularly at the airport.
The Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers recently announced that 14 of its member hotels
in Malindi and Watamu on the North Coast had closed down. The high tourist season in Kenya
normally begins in July but local hoteliers appear skeptical on a quick revival as there
have been heavy cancellations following advisory notices from Britain, USA and Australia.
Following the terrorist attack in there has not been a single reported crime incident against a
tourist and allegedly no bomb-making devices have been found. However an accomplice of
mine experienced a dangerous incident at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi
My
accomplice, a Tanzanian, was having a meeting in his Nairobi office when two people called
his wife from the reception at the Hilton telling her that they had been instructed by him
to pick and take her to the office. She met the two smartly dressed men at the hotel’s
reception and being suspicious she called her husband to find out if he had actually sent
somebody. The husband immediately asked her to contact security but the two gangsters
escaped. As this is an ongoing crime case, circumstances do not allow me to relate further
information. This potentially dangerous incident has not been reported in any Kenya
newspaper but indicates that things can be dangerous for tourists.
Security for tourists is of paramount importance and one
wonders how gangsters can have access to visitors’ room information in five star
hotels like the Hilton. As a Hilton Honours member I have communicated to the Hilton Hotel
expressing reservations about the incident but at the end of it all, such incidents and
those like the behaviour of the Kenya Airways crew members would dissuade visitors from Kenya.
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