Transport Secretary, James Macharia has revealed details sent by Dubais Director General of the Civil Aviation of Dubai sparking diplomatic rows between Kenya and The UAE.
He said that the letter was sent in the motive of forcing the Kenyan Government to increase flights to Dubai.
“We got a letter recently from the Director-General, Civil Aviation of Dubai and not one written by the UAE minister.”
“They told us not to fly the aircraft that has a capacity of more than 220 seats to Dubai but they fly into Kenya aircraft with more than 400 seats.”
“When we receive this kind of letters, they send a wrong message in terms of tactics the airline is using and shows that they do not respect Kenya,” Macharia stated.
“Giving them more flight capacity means they will get 90 percent of business between Nairobi and Dubai while Kenya Airways (KQ) gets 10 percent. This is not tenable,” Macharia added.
“Every airline is struggling. Giving them additional frequencies will compound a difficult situation. We shall not agree even if they continue lobbying because this is not tenable,” he affirmed.
Notably, this is not the first time for Dubai and Kenya to be involved in a diplomatic differences.
In 2010,Kenya deported 4 Dubai nationalities sighting terror related crimes.
In a move that angered the Dubai government, they countered it with imposing strick measures to Kenyans entering the UAE to provide proof of higher education so that they can get a visa.
The two countries however held talks and settled their differences.
