When Obama was elected, and even before, Kenyans “knew” that he would bring great change and would help Kenya out, for he is their son. Well, he at least, brought one out of two goals.
During the Bush administration a deal was setup with Kenya to allow non-stop flights from the US to Kenya. This was seen as an achievement, because it would increase tourism from the United States. The flight would make the trip less expensive, and also allow for shorter flight time for passengers.
This, however, has been cast aside by the Obama administration. Homeland Security decided that there were “security vulnerabilities” that would make the flights too dangerous. When the deal was agreed to, Kenyan officials had addressed the security concerns, but apparently Homeland Security believes that they haven’t done enough.
So now, we who were excited for these flights to start up here shortly will now have to wait indefinitely waiting on bureaucratic crap. The US Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, said that it was only a “postponement,” but he could not say when the flights might be able to start.
A Kenyan official said that stopping these flights from happening “amounts to a travel advisory against [Kenya],” which is likely to be the case. And as earlier, this sort of thing will damage the tourism in Kenya.
There really isn’t anything funny about this, except that Obama isn’t much of a friend to Kenya, and that they should get used to disappointment, like those that were friendly to the US: Britain, Germany…