Kenyan woman stranded at JKIA over yellow fever certificate
A Kenyan woman has taken to Twitter to document her 25-hour agony waiting for results of a Yellow Fever test upon her return from the neighbouring Uganda without the now all-important document.
Corrie Mwende, a Nairobi-based Public Relations practitioner, started tweeting two hours after she had arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Sunday at 10:30am aboard a Rwanda Air flight.
“I only wish that info would be disseminated clearly even when booking flights regarding yellow fever. Oh well. It is what it is,” she wrote.
DELAYED RESULTS
However, things got ugly on Monday mid-morning when an officer came to take yet another test stating that the Kenya Medical Research Institute does not open on Sundays hence the delayed results.
Ms Mwende narrated in a series of tweets how she had travelled to Uganda by road and no one demanded for the yellow certificate.
“When I booked my flight with #RwandaAir there was no disclaimer on having the cert. Because otherwise I would get one @KenyaAirports,” she added.
She went on to narrate how on arrival at JKIA she had to wait for a Kemri officer to take her blood sample and at 4:30pm when the sample was drawn she was told results would be out at 8am, Monday.
MORE BLOOD
“As I tweet the lab guy from @KEMRIW has come to test more blood. He tells me that KEMRI guys were not working jana @KenyaAirports,” she wrote.
The Nairobi News sought an explanation from a Kenya Airports Authority official who said health matters are only handled by the port health office.
On calling the port health office, the supervisor stated that the officer in charge was attending a workshop and was the only one authorised to give an explanation on the delay adding that she would find out information on the matter and get back.
Ms Mwende who had been live tweeting her experience collaborated that stating, “Now the people who were in charge yesterday at port health did not brief the team today at port health regarding my situation…haiii!”
