A US travel warning was recently issued to American nationals visiting Kenya advising them to evaluate their personal safety situation in light of terrorist threats and increasing incidents of violent crime. In a response similar to that issued recently in South Africa concerning spiralling levels of crime and violence, Kenyan Tourism Minister Morris Dzoro and Government Spokesman Dr. Alfred Mutua said the advisories would not affect tourism or any other sector of the economy. “What we know as a government is that there is no place in the world that is secure. There are worse things that happen in American and European cities than what is happening in Kenya now, so it has not mattered before and doesn’t matter now and it will not matter.”

He went on, “When you consider the number of criminal attacks that are in cities such as New York or Los Angeles where people are killed in gang warfare, now that is another thing,” said Mutua in his weekly briefing. “It does not mean that Kenya is a place where there is rampant insecurity and nobody is safe. Issuing travel advisories in terms of a few acts of thuggery in our country is totally unfair.”

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