Africa Travel Information

Map of Libya in North Africa

I know, this is a travel blog, with a goal of informing and educating people on matters pertaining the Africa travel industry. I have very little expertise on economic and political affairs to write about such matters in detail in this platform. But occasionally, some political events warrant a comment. The death of Muammar Gaddafi is one such event.

I was watching some video footages of the event on youtube, and was left with a sickening feeling in my stomach. I mean, this man has been the Libyan President for over 40 years. Yes, he may have been a dictator, a despot, and all other bad adjectives we can use to describe bad leaders. But he was the face of that nation. Also he must have had some few positives, as some people have pointed out.

In my view, it was very barbaric to treat him the way he was treated. To see what I am talking about, go to youtube then go to /watch?v=oR8v00pfglg and /watch?NR=1&v=6HlG7nEAryE (I choose not to embed the videos in this post).

Read the rest of this entry »

Map of Kenya

This post is prompted by the latest Kenya travel advisory issued by the UK and France governments.

A Brief Background to these latest travel warnings
Early last month (September 11, 2011), an armed gang raided an exclusive tourist resort in Lamu, killed a British tourist, and abducted his wife. See the full story in the Daily Nation.

Three weeks later, in October 1, 2011, another gang kidnapped a 66 year old French woman from her private home in Manda Island in Lamu. You can see this story too in both the Standard and the Daily Nation.

The minister for tourism, Najib Balala, has since then assured Kenya tourism stakeholders that the government has put measures in place to ensure such incidents do to occur again. Too late perhaps, coz the harm has already been done.

Under such circumstances therefore, the travel warnings about Kenya are somehow justified. And to be fair, the advisories only advise against traveling to Lamu and the region near the Kenya-Somali border. But I know safety is an important consideration for many people planning to come to Kenya, whether on a safari holiday or a business trip. So, is it safe to travel to Kenya? Read the rest of this entry »