The model of an aircraft in the colors of Kenya Airways, in front of the company’s headquarters, in Nairobi on February 6, 2024 (AFP/Tony KARUMBA)
The airline Kenya Airways (KQ) announced Monday that it was suspending its flights “to Kinshasa” due to the “illegal” detention of two of its employees in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for around ten days.
Kenya Airways, one of the main companies in Africa, requested on Friday the release of two employees of its office at Kinshasa airport, detained since April 19 by the services of the Military Detection of Anti-Homeland Activities (Demiap ). According to her, a military court had accepted a request for release the day before.
The Congolese authorities have not communicated about these arrests.
“Due to the ongoing detention of KQ employees by the military intelligence unit in Kinshasa, Kenya Airways (KQ) is unable to operate its flights effectively without personnel. As a result, we have taken the difficult decision to suspend flights to Kinshasa from April 30, 2024,” the company announced in a press release on Monday.
“The continued detention of our employees has made it difficult to supervise our operations in Kinshasa, which include customer service, ground handling, cargo activities and generally ensuring safe, secure and efficient operations” , she adds.
She also asks that her “staff be treated with humanity and respect during this illegal detention”.
– Mysterious cargo –
The reasons for this detention are currently unclear.
Kenya Airways said on Friday that “the reason for their arrest was the absence of customs documents regarding a valuable cargo that was to be transported on a KQ flight on April 12, 2024.”
A woman cycles past a model of an aircraft in the colors of Kenya Airways, in front of the company’s headquarters, in Nairobi on February 6, 2024 (AFP/Tony KARUMBA)
But this cargo, whose contents remain unknown for the moment, “was not loaded nor accepted by KQ due to an incomplete documentation file”, underlined Kenya Airways, deploring that “all efforts to explain to military officers that KQ had not accepted the shipment due to incomplete documentation proved futile.”
The employees were held “incommunicado until April 23, when embassy officials and the KQ team were allowed to visit them,” it said.
The airline said Monday that it continues “to cooperate with relevant investigative agencies and government entities in the DRC and Kenya to ensure this matter is resolved.”
“We ask the military court to release them so that due process can be followed and our innocent personnel can return to their families and daily lives without harassment,” she continued.
This incident sparked outrage in Kenya.
“This is a serious violation of the rights of the two Kenyans and a worrying violation of the diplomatic principles on which relations between Kenya and the DRC are based,” said the president of the commission. Parliamentarian on Defense, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, Nelson Koech, in a press release.
Kenya Airways was founded in 1977 after the demise of East African Airways. It serves 45 destinations, including 37 in Africa.
© 2024 AFP
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