Kenyan medical centre seeks $1.5m for Covid testing permit withdrawal
Saturday January 29 2022
Tourists screened upon arrival at Dubai airport, the United Arab Emirates, as the Gulf emirate reopened to tourists after a long shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. PHOTO | AFP
A Kenyan medical facility has gone to court seeking $1.55 million as damages after suspension of its Covid testing licence.
Checkups Medical Centre, based at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), has petitioned against a decision by the Health ministry to withdraw its credentials to issue Trusted Travel Code for travellers.
Besides seeking to be allowed to continue testing passengers at Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) and port health, the facility is seeking to be compensated for losses suffered after its licence was suspended by Director of Health Services Patrick Amoth on January 14, 2022.
“At all material times, the petitioner has remained committed to carry out its business within the quality standards in line with the first respondent’s (MOH) guidelines and quality assurances for Covid-19 testing,” it says in its filings.
Rising numbers
The UAE barred flights from Kenya on December 20, 2021, saying that travellers from Nairobi were testing positive for Covid-19 on arrival in the country despite presenting negative test results. Dubai wrote two letters to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and Kenya Airways in December, seeking answers to the rising number of Kenyans turning positive at its airport, despite holding negative PCR certificates, but received no response.
Checkup says it was requested by Kenya Airways to do a six-hour pre-flight testing for passengers in transit to the Red-zone UAE on September 23, 2021. As the sole testing lab, the facility says it was not aware of any false negative results, but it later discovered there was another authorised laboratory for passengers, a matter it brought to the attention of KAA and port health authorities.
Between December 15 and 19, 2021, 95 passengers presumably transported by Kenya Airways, tested positive for Covid-19 in Dubai, forcing the UAE to place Kenya on the Red list. On December 20, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority announced 48-hour suspension on all flights from Kenya, followed by three extensions and indefinite ban.
It was then that the Ministry of Health informed Checkup that the government had received alarming reports that several clients tested in its facility and issued with negative Covid-19 travel certificates turned positive upon arrival to their destinations.
But the facility says the allegations were not based on any statistics or supporting information and that the letter communicating its suspension was sent through the media.
The facility sued the Health ministry, Dr Amoth, Kenya Medical Laboratory Technicians and Technologists Board and the Pharmacy and Poisons Board.
Through the lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, the company says the decision to withdraw its licence was illegal.
It says the Ministry relied on rumours, never called gave it an opportunity to give its side of the story or tabled evidence to back the claims.
Meanwhile, Dubai has lifted a ban on travellers from 12 African nations, including Kenya and Tanzania.
On January 26, the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority vacated the month-long ban, offering relief to thousands of travellers. Dubai is a major aviation hub for travellers into and out of Africa.
Apart from Kenya and Tanzania, the UAE government also announced the resumption of entry for passengers from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Congo, South Africa, Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe from January 29.
But passengers from Uganda, Ghana and Rwanda will be subjected to strict entry requirements, including presenting negative Covid-19 PCR test certificates with QR codes for tests conducted at an approved facility not more than 48 hours before departure and at the airport within six hours before the flight. They are also required to undertake a PCR tests upon arrival.
Dubai is opening its borders to Kenya days after Nairobi lifted a retaliatory ban on inbound and transit passenger flights from the Middle East nation it had imposed two weeks ago. Travellers from East Africa to Dubai have been facing stringent conditions, with airlines like Kenya Airways and Ethiopian Airlines, which ply that route, recording a slowdown in business in the festive season.