Kenya Detains Somali Planes After Flight Ban

Nairobi, November 14, 2006 – Kenyan authorities on Monday detained two planes, including a UN aircraft, that landed in Nairobi from Somalia as a ban on flights to and from the lawless nation took effect, officials said.

The ban, announced at the weekend for security reasons after a US warning that Somali extremists have threatened suicide attacks in Kenya, snagged a UN charter and a commercial airliner coming from Mogadishu, they said.

Kenyan and UN officials confirmed the detention.

"The UN plane landed and was detained briefly, but was later released," a UN spokesperson said.

"We are in a process of discussing with the foreign ministry on humanitarian flights to Somalia," she added.

The 36 passengers and crew aboard the detained East African Express Airlines plane said they had been barred from leaving Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after the flight landed from the Somali capital.

"We have been ordered to stay here until we get clearance from higher authorities," said Barre Shirre, a Kenyan ex-lawmaker who had traveled to Somalia for talks with powerful Islamists there.

Officials said the UN flight, which also traveled from Somalia, was detained only briefly before being cleared and its unknown number of passengers and crew allowed to leave JKIA.

On Saturday, Kenya's civil aviation authority ordered the suspension of all scheduled flights to and from Somalia for what officials said were "security reasons" after the US terror alert.

Under the ban, which took effect Monday, all charter flights must obtain special clearance to fly to or from Somalia seven days in advance of the flight.

In addition to the six-days-a-week scheduled commercial service from Nairobi to Mogadishu and three other Somali cities on two airlines, the ban also includes cargo flights, many of which haul the mild narcotic khat into Somalia.

The Islamists seized control of the capital in June now control most of southern and central Somalia where they have imposed strict sharia law and criminalized the use of the khat, known in Kenya by growers as miira.

Miira producers in Kenya, whose principle market is Somalia, have complained bitterly about the ban and demanded it be eased.

Source: Sapa-AFP