Hundreds of Kenyans currently living locked down in India are overwhelmed by their return back home as the Indian government has accepted to set them free to go back to their respective country.
After lockdown had been declared in India, foreigners in the country could not make any movements as they were also locked in the foreign land.
About 223 Kenyans got stuck in India during the COVID-19 pandemic period. However, responding to the cries of these people, the Kenyan government spoke to India asking them to allow stranded Kenyans assemble at one place for a well-planned repatriation flight back home.
Information at the Kenyan mission confirmed that most Kenya citizens where scattered in the country with no sense of particular direction. A large population of Kenyan citizens where in New Delhi, Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad in Telangana, Bangalore in Karnataka, Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Mumbai.
The freed Kenyans where organised a plane trip back home by their government with almost free ticket prices bearing in mind that the people probably no longer had much to spend since they had been locked in a foreign country.
India had imposed travel restrictions between cities in a bid to lower infection rates for the COVID-19. Thus, a diplomat testified that the mission would organise transportation to Delhi and would announce pick-up locations later.
The Kenyan government made it possible that the stranded Kenyans in India be given a special permission to travel from May 1 even if India had to extend their lockdown.
“This is neither an evacuation nor repatriation but simply a facilitation to help stranded Kenyans get home. That is why they have to pay,” stated the ministry of Foreign Affairs.
