Kenyans working in Afghanistan will be evacuated by their respective employers, the government has said.
In response to queries on the safety of Kenyans working in the troubled country, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau reassured that there were no Kenyans officially on assignment as diplomats or any other government duty.
“Kenya has neither diplomatic presence nor accreditation to Afghanistan,” Amb Kamau said, indicating that the primary duty for safety of Kenyans lay with their deploying organisations.
But he did say that Kenya was aware of those who have been in the troubled country as international agencies’ staff, noting that they have began evacuating their employees.
Some Kenyans, he said, were in Afghanistan as private contractors or legal experts for agencies like the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO).
As such, Mr Kamau said, Nairobi had contacted the agency’s head offices in Rome regarding evacuation plans.
“We did a letter to IDLO country office and their headquarters in Rome. We are following up to find out if there are known Kenyans stranded there through the High Commission in Pakistan.”
Kenya, like most African countries, has no embassy or even diplomatic accreditation to Afghanistan. Nairobi’s nearest diplomatic mission is the High Commission in Islamabad, Pakistan. But even the High Commissioner there is not accredited to Kabul, meaning Kenya will be using third parties to gather facts regarding its nationals on the ground.
