Two years ago, it waived the visa requirement for tourists from Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The aim, at the time, was to encourage more tourists to come to Kenya by making travel easier.

Now the Government says the waiver is creating "administrative" difficulties, that it creates discrimination against tourists from countries not covered in the waiver, that it is difficult for Immigration staff to know who is a tourist, who is not.

The Government is no doubt aware of the importance of tourism to the economy and the urgency of ensuring recovery in the sector. Indeed, the Government has been making various efforts to market Kenya in Europe and elsewhere. This latest move seems to run counter those efforts.

The explanation that the waiver leads to discrimination is spurious. Discrimination is an integral part of international travel. For example, if one is travelling to the UK from America or the European Union, one is treated separately from travellers from other parts of the world as a matter of routine. Travellers are also discriminated on the basis of the air ticket they are travelling on. To argue that we are reintroducing the visa rule to eliminate discrimination is, to say the least, strange.

The visa requirement generates income, especially since such direct income can be used to run missions abroad. But perhaps the Government requires to assess the possibility that a recovery in tourism could generate more money for it, and the economy in general, than the direct income from visas.

We appeal to the Government to reflect further on this decision and determine once and for all where the nartion's larger and longer-term interests lie.