The Ministry of Health has announced a move to ensure that the Covid-19 certificates being issued to travelers are genuine.
Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said on Friday that the ministry has collaborated with the African Union and Africa CDC, with the technical support from PanaBIOS to implement an online system to authenticate and verify the certificates.
This will be in line with the guidelines of the Trusted Travel Initiative (TTI).
“I, therefore, wish to notify travelers to first visit an authorized laboratory to take an RT PCR Covid-19 test and be issued with Trusted Travel (TT) codes that can be verified by airlines and Port Health authorities,” Kagwe said.
The travelers will receive a text message from PanaBIOS and a mail from the testing laboratory with a link to guide the traveler to generate a Travel Code at trustedtravel.panabios.org.
“If a test result meets the exit and entry requirements of Kenya and the traveler’s destination, a Travel Code is then issued to the traveler online,” Kagwe added.
The CS has said that all the RT PCR Covid testing laboratories have already been onboarded to the TT system in the country.
In-bound travelers from countries yet to onboard to TTI will use a tool made available through the UNDP-supported Global Haven partnership www.globalhaven,org for Covid test results and vaccine verification.
The CS said that from Monday 11, January 2021, no traveler will depart from Kenya without verification of their certificates using the TT process.
“No traveler will depart from Kenya without verification of their certificates using the TT process. No laboratories are permitted to issue Covid-19 certificates without TT codes from January 9, 2021,”
Kagwe added that the novel digital services are issued at no cost to citizens or related government agencies as a result of collaboration with the AU bodies.