The long-awaited ‘repatriation’ flight (KQ 205) from India landed in Nairobi on Thursday evening, after it departed Mumbai at 6.30pm local time.
The 234 passengers are expected to undergo quarantine for 14 mandatory days before they can be released to their homes.
But the flight, our sources indicated, also brought with it two bodies. A passenger who had been sickly died before boarding while another had died earlier.
Kenya’s High Commission in New Delhi had worked out the paperwork for 234 Kenyans stranded in India since March 23 2020 following Premier Narendra Modi’s total lockdown. The restrictions were extended to May 17 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The single flight picked them up at a subsidised rate of $800 (Sh85,894) for a business class ticket and USD 430 (Sh45,635) for economy.
Kenya’s High Commissioner to India Willy Bett who had earlier confirmed that some patients and caregivers may have missed seats on the flight as reported by the Nation now says that some 17 people who Intended to travel back home were ejected and replaced with patients and their caregivers.