Kenya Plans to Allocate $775,000 for the Evacuation of Nationals Stranded in the Middle East
On Wednesday, Kenya revealed plans to earmark approximately 775,000 USD, aiming to support its security forces and allied agencies in evacuating citizens trapped amid the tensions between Israel and Lebanon. This decision comes in response to the region’s increasingly unstable environment.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who doubles as the head of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, informed the Senate of the government’s unwavering commitment to ensuring the safety of all 26,000 Kenyans residing in the tumultuous Middle East. “We’ve reached out to our citizens in Lebanon. Some expressed comfort remaining there for now, promising to alert us if circumstances worsen,” Mudavadi shared, as per a statement following his talk in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.
Since late September, particularly on the 23rd, Israel has been conducting extensive air raids on Lebanon, aiming at what it describes as Hezbollah strongholds. These operations have led to numerous casualties and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in distress.
Through the Kenyan embassy in Kuwait, it has been reported that around 1,500 Kenyans have already registered for governmental aid, which includes evacuation—a gigantic undertaking that the authorities have made a top priority.
Mudavadi also highlighted the government’s progress in crafting a plan to assist Kenyans in regions plagued by humanitarian crises. However, he acknowledged that financial limitations have been a stumbling block for seamless operations in such predicaments.
Furthermore, Mudavadi underscored the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs’ relentless efforts to ensure that no life is endangered, and no Kenyan is left in a lurch.
Edited by: Ali Musa
Axadle international–Monitoring
