A woman and her children are rescued from the Westgate mall following
the recent terrorist attack. Some countries have issued travel
advisories against Kenya since. FILE
By Scott Bellows
Posted Thursday, October 3 2013 at 18:07
Posted Thursday, October 3 2013 at 18:07
In Summary
- The main determinants of travel advisories are citizen safety, politics and blame protection.
As a nation, we continue to mourn the loss of
friends and family following the Westgate attack last week. Kenyans came
together in solidarity and healing as outpouring of sympathy and
support flowed in from around the globe.
However, despite pleas to the contrary, we watched
in dismay when our television stations reported Australia’s travel
advisory followed by the UK’s and the United States’.
But let us pull up our socks and remember that in
order to address foreign nations properly and negotiate business deals,
we must understand the workings behind any travel warning.
First, ministries of foreign affairs around the
world maintain an obligation to protect their citizens with advice and
support. Second, do not only listen to commentary by others who misquote
aspects, but go to the source documents and read the actual travel
advisories.
Third, contrary to the hysteria whipped up by
various commentators regarding the warnings, realise that foreign
governments do not desire to “punish” Kenya with travel advisories due
to lingering bitterness over our March 4 General Election.
All politics are local. Presidents and prime
ministers world over care about the politics and re-elections in their
own countries and concern themselves little with who leads Kenya.
Western nations specifically only desire that
Kenya remains stable, supports international common sense initiatives
against global ills such as terrorism, and continues to foster
international economic trade. Beyond any particular team’s ability to
ensure the continuity of the three main areas, Western nations do not
care about outcomes of our politics.
Fourth, everyone likes to cover himself or herself
against blame. Imagine a scenario where a foreign government knew of
certain threats against its citizens travelling in a country but failed
to warn them.
The likely local political fallout and even
potential lawsuits would frighten any foreign affairs ministry to
over-warn instead of under-warn. The three main determinants of travel
advisories are citizen safety, politics and blame protection.
Given the factors impacting travel advisories, does it indeed make sense for Kenya to receive repeated travel advisories?
Using the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
statistics, we may quickly determine that Saint Lucia, the Bahamas and
Puerto Rico all possess similar rates of homicide as Kenya.
Despite parallel murder rates as a proportion of
the population, the UK, US and Australia fail to warn their citizens
about dangers in travel to these Caribbean nations as much as foreign
tourists do get targeted there in similar proportions as in Kenya.
Likewise, Brazil and Tanzania sustain comparable
homicide statistics as Kenya, but receive no travel advisories beyond
simple alerts about crime rates.
Digging even deeper, the North American nation of
Belize and its white sandy beaches — a favourite tourist destination of
Anglophones — as well as Zambia and Uganda, each uphold roughly double
the murder rates per 100,000 people at 42, 38, and 36 annual homicides
respectively, compared to Kenya’s 20.
But no travel advisories from the US, UK or
Australia exist for these nations. Australia’s innovative travel site
does list some mild dangers, but does not warn its citizens. It even
rates Zambia as much safer than Kenya.
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