The governments of Kenya and Tanzania called out KLM on Saturday for spreading “unfounded” claims after the airline published on January 27 an advisory warning of travel disruptions due to purported civil unrest in the two countries.
On Friday night, KLM on its social media pages and official website listed Kenya and Tanzania as countries experiencing civil unrest and that the airline will suspend its flights to the two countries on Monday.
“Due to civil unrest in Tanzania and Kenya from Friday 27 January up to and including Monday 30 January 2023, some of our flights to, from or via Dar -es-Salam (DAR), Kilimanjaro (JRO), Zanzibar (ZNZ), and Nairobi (NRB) may be disrupted. We are doing our very best to help you on your way again,” read the statement posted on Friday night by KLM.
Kenya’s Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said Saturday that he had protested to the airline over “this unfounded, false, insensitive and misleading information that paints Kenya in bad light.”
“We will escalate this discussion through diplomatic channels,” he warned in a statement.
Tanzania’s government also criticised the advisory, with the minister for works and transport Makame Mbarawa saying 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 travellers to ignore the advisory.
The airline, which is owned by Air France KLM, apologised to the Kenyan government on Saturday, saying the advisory was “only meant for our customers in Tanzania.”
The post was later edited, removing any reference to Kenya or Nairobi, but retaining the bit about Tanzania, which has also not reported any cases of civil unrest or fears of any such occurrences.