Monday 21st January 2008: Security Update: 6.00 p.m.

Today all was calm across Nairobi including the central business district and no problems were reported today in the slums. The airports operated as normal and all roads were open as usual.

Mombasa and the coastal areas: all calm and quiet with business as usual in Mombasa town and all roads open as normal.

No problems were reported in any of the wildlife parks and reserves, with all tourist routes open for traffic as normal.

The town of Narok, which is on the route from Nairobi to the Mara, and where there were two days of demonstrations last week, is reported now to be calm with all shops and businesses open today as normal.

Once again there were no reports of any problems affecting tourists staying in Nairobi hotels, beach resorts, on safari, or transferring between airports and hotels. This has been the case throughout the whole post-election period.

The areas of Western Kenya around Kisumu-Kericho-Eldoret are still off-limits for tourists and there have been reports of continued isolated inter-ethnic clashes in this region. This area has been avoided by tour operators since onset of the post-election crisis and this part of the country is not normally visited by tourists in any case.

Kofi Annan is expected to arrive tomorrow and expectations are high that his role as mediator will help both sides to achieve a reconciliation, reflecting the wish of the overwhelming majority of Kenyans whose greatest desire is to see peace and calm restored throughout the country.

The British Travel Advisory was amended on Saturday so that it is no longer a blanket “non-essential travel” warning against the whole of Kenya and applies only to specific locations, in line with our own recommendations, and on similar lines to the US and German government advisories. This should result in more visitors being able to travel to Kenya in the weeks ahead.

Kenya Tourist Board, Kenya Tourism Federation