Don’t Take Plastic Bags To Kenya Or Face 4 Years In Prison

By

 Juergen T Steinmetz

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Four years in jail for having a plastic bag. This is the maximum penalty in Kenya. FInes are $19.000 to $38.000 – and penalties are the world’s harshest.

Tourists are warned: Don’t import or carry plastic bags.

Kenya is adjusting to life without plastic bags after a strict ban on the carriers went into effect this week. Traders in Nairobi swapped out the cheap lightweight plastic bags for cartons, paper bags, and envelopes, while grocery stores sold reusable fiber bags and cardboard boxes.

Elsewhere, restaurants in Nairobi are packaging food deliveries in spare shoe boxes and other containers. Photos of a school girl in eastern Kenya who improvised a bag made out of dried banana leaves circulated social media. Others tied string around their vegetables for easier transport. Residents have been asked to drop off their plastic bags at local grocery stores.

The ban marks the third time officials have tried to cut down on the use of the bags in Kenya, where an estimated 100 million plastic bags are given out by supermarkets every year. Previous attempts, which focused on bags of a certain level of thickness, were never fully carried out. Today, the bags litter most Kenyan roads and clog sewers and streams, damaging soil and water sources, as well as the animals that consume the plastic bags.

 

President Obama In Kenya To Open The Local Entrepreneurship Summit: GES

He is the most popular tourist Kenya as a tourism destination had ever seen. Him exploring Kenya will most likely be the push Kenya needed to turn its travel and tourism industry around - and not only for American visitors. He, the president of the United States, is officially in Kenya to open the local Entrepreneurship Summit: GES 2015

This is his first visit to his father's homeland as president of the United States. He is twice as popular in Kenya than he is in the U.S. Kenya, among Chicago and Hawaii are all claiming him their own. President Obama made his connection to this East African country clear when he said: "There's a reason why my name's Barack Hussein Obama." East Africa."

On his first visit as the U.S. president Obama said Kenya has made "incredible progress" since his last visit. He added ,people should not be "blinded" by prejudice.

During his first day in Nairobi, President Obama spent time with his many Kenyan relatives.

In Kogelo, there are high expectations that this American tourist who is really not an ordinary tourist will go a little bit out of his way to get to this village of 3648 people in the far west of the country, near Lake Victoria. Kogelo, is a small village in western Kenya, and President Obama's ancestral home. His father, Barack Obama Snr, was raised in the village and after his death in 1982 was buried there. Half of the villagers are named after president Obama and want him to come "home" on this trip.

"When I was here in Nairobi ten years ago, it looked different from what it looks today. There's a lot of progress. I'm proud of all you," he said.

"We expect great things out of you," Mr Obama added, before stepping down from the stage.

Mr. Obama Praised dynamism of Kenyan business and said: "Africa is on the move,".

Kenya New Website Now Up And Running - And Smart

When Kenya Airways’ new website went ‘live’ again were a great many ‘wow’ emerging from users, as the Pride of Africa turned the site’s focus sharply towards their customers.

The recently launched scheme called ‘Hot Deals’ now shows users of the website, once they have identified their country of origin within the Kenya Airways’ network, the best deals available.

A ticket from Entebbe to the paradise islands of the Seychelles now goes for as little as US Dollars 486 while a trip to Vietnam has a return ticket price start from US Dollars 1030 and those keen to pay a visit to Malawi only need US Dollar 498 to get to Malawi.

Navigation of the new site, through highlighted links to key functions like online bookings, online check in, booking changes or KQ’s frequent flyer programme ‘Flying Blue’ has just become easier and other services are easily found by moving the cursor over the topics on the top of the site.

Smartphone, Phablet and Tablet users of course also have the option to download the Kenya Airways Mobile App and access all these services on their hand held devices.

Two more Boeing B787-8 Dreamliners will be joining the fleet over the next couple of weeks as will another brand new Boeing B737-800NG SkyInterior, which features a state of the art lighting experience throughout the cabin and the new business class seats which Kenya Airways has introduced in the more recently acquired -800NG’s.