Radio Jambo presenter, Joseph Gidi Ogigi popularly known as Gidi Gidi will not be attending his daughter, Marie-Rose’s birthday after he was involuntarily forced to give up his seat on an Air France plane and go back home.
“What Marie-Rose doesn’t know is that I won’t be seeing her. I was bumped out of the Wednesday night flight to Paris,” the musician wrote on social media.
Gidi, who was to travel from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport was denied entry upon getting to the plane’s boarding gate. He explained that the incident occurred due to a hitch with the new Covid-19 travel regulations.
“I had no option but to turn back to the arrivals section, feeling disappointed and wasted. I picked my luggage which was already removed from the plane and went back home,” he lamented.
Read: DCI Arrests Woman Who Confessed To Killing Husband’s Side Piece Live On Radio Jambo
According to the Gidi and Ghost presenter, France was not allowing visit Visa-holders to travel to the country. Although the French Embassy later clarified this to him, Gidi felt they should have communicated before he made his travel plans.
“I feel the airline should have informed me on these new guidelines before booking or before check-in. However they have since apologised for the hitch and offered to refund the ticket in full without any penalties,” he explained.
France’s Covid-19 travel regulations are currently more stringent for third-world countries compared to several Western countries. Travellers from Africa and other countries are only allowed into France for purely essential reasons, as opposed to travellers from the UK, Australia and New Zealand among other countries.
“While the Covid-19 pandemic stabilizes on the national territory, the propagation of the virus in certain countries, and in particular of several variants of interest raising fears of a risk of increased transmissibility or vaccine escape, requires a reinforcement of the control measures for arrivals from these countries,” the French government announced on May 9.
Gidi Gidi said he had not yet reached out to his daughter with the disappointing news and was uneasy about doing so.
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