NAIROBI, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- More than 7,000 Kenyan nationals are seeking government assistance to leave Lebanon, according to an official on Thursday.
Kenya's Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, also the cabinet secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, said that of an estimated 26,000 Kenyans in Lebanon, at least 7,119 have registered for evacuation from the conflict-ridden Middle East nation.
So far, the Kenyan government has evacuated 35 people in the first three cohorts from Lebanon amid ongoing instability, with authorities also aware that a number of Kenyans managed to travel back on their own initiatives or funded by other agencies and partners.
"Through the Kenya Embassy in Kuwait in liaison with the Honorary Consul in Lebanon, the government has kept abreast of daily developments with ensuring that Kenyans in Lebanon are adequately advised on safety measures to take pending their evacuation," Mudavadi said during a media briefing in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
He noted that the government has instructed all Kenyan ambassadors in the Middle East region to conduct a swift registration exercise of Kenyans in their jurisdiction and to request the host countries to ascertain the number of Kenyans in those countries.
According to Mudavadi, the number of Kenyans who register for support to come back home has increased compared to when the government gave its initial alert, and the following requests are expected to rise.
With no Kenyan casualties reported so far, Mudavadi revealed that the fourth and fifth evacuation batches are expected to arrive this weekend.
However, he said the evacuation process has proven to be slow and cumbersome due to stringent clearance requirements from the Lebanese authorities and limited flight options, with only one airline currently operating flights into Beirut.
When asked about his estimation of the length of time to bring the 7,000-odd stranded Kenyans home, Mudavadi responded that it could take a long time.
"That's why I said we are looking at other means. I did indicate that we are also considering the possibility of evacuation by sea so that you can get people to be sailed to a different destination and then from there you make arrangements," said Mudavadi. ■