Kenya Airways employees freed from DR Congo detention

According to a senior official in Kenya’s foreign ministry and the airline’s CEO, two Kenya Airways employees who were arrested in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in late April have been released.

Chief Executive Officer Allan Kilavuka announced in a statement that the airline would immediately restart its flights to Congo, which had been halted in late April.

Two airline employees were seized by Congo’s military intelligence on April 19, purportedly due to missing customs paperwork on some expensive goods.

The shipper’s incomplete paperwork was the reason given by the corporation for not having taken control of the cargo.

The airline suspended its flights because the incarceration of the two employees made it difficult for the airline to support the flights, even though a court ruling had asked for their release.

Two of the employees were from the Congo; one was Kenyan.

“We are deeply thankful to announce that Lydia Mbotela, our KQ Manager in the DRC, was just freed by Kinshasa authorities,” Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry principal secretary Korir Sing’oei posted on social networking site X.

According to Kenya Airlines, Mbotela’s colleague from the Congo has also been freed.

“Kenya Airways confirms that military authorities in Kinshasa have unconditionally released our two employees…” said Kilavuka.

Requests for response from Reuters were not immediately answered by the minister of communication in Congo, the government spokeswoman, or military intelligence.

Kenya Airways had stated last week that it was working with Kenyan and Congolese government institutions as well as investigative bodies to get the issue rectified.