Travellers lament scanner breakdown at Manda Airport
Manda Airport in Lamu.Travellers at the facility have complained of being subjected to manual frisking and risk them from contracting Covid-19, after the X-ray baggage scanner developed mechanical hitch two weeks ago.
Travellers at Manda Airport in Lamu County had to be manually frisked because the security screening machine that broke down two weeks ago had not been fixed.
And the X-ray baggage scanner’s conveyor belt is damaged, meaning cargo, too, was not undergoing the necessary checks.
Passengers who talked to Nation.Africa this week complained that they struggled with heavy luggage as they waited to be physically searched.
The physical checks and frisking were tedious and posed health risks, said Fatma Athman, who urged the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) to look into the matter urgently.
“We are tired of being manually frisked by the airport attendants. This involves direct touch, which exposes us to Covid-19. Our luggage is also being manually handled which isn’t okay,” she said.
“Every time we ask, we are told the security screening system stopped functioning. KAA should repair it. It’s improper.”
Manual frisking, said Mohamed Omar, another traveller, wastes time because passengers must queue as they wait their turn to be searched.
The situation, he said, is a major security risk as evil-minded people can easily sneak in prohibited items such as drugs.
“They should repair their X-ray baggage scanner. The physical search is both inadequate and time-consuming. What we are subjected to should not be happening in an airport,” he said.
Contacted for comment, KAA Coast regional manager Peter Wafula dismissed reports that the entire security screening system at the airport was not functioning.
But he acknowledged that only the X-ray scanner for cargo had developed mechanical problems when the conveyor belt was damaged, adding that the hitch had been rectified.
He said a cargo conveyor belt from another X-ray baggage scanner was sought from Malindi and sent to Lamu to address the issue.
He insisted that the scanner for passengers was functioning.
“We haven’t had any issue with the scanner for travellers. The only problem we had was the conveyor belt for the cargo scanner, which was torn,” he said.
“We had to take the belt to Hindi, where leather tailors amended it and returned it immediately. It’s now functioning.”
In February this year, Manda Airport hit the headlines following an acute water shortage.
The problem arose from reduced water supply from the Lamu Water and Sewerage Company because of a prolonged drought that had cut water levels in the main water reservoir in Shella.
Casual labourers at the airport had to go to Shella to fetch water from wells and fill hundreds of containers before heading back to the airport by boat.
The water supply problem was fixed.
