NAIROBI, Kenya — During the past 32 years, African Heritage has withstood a weakening economy and runaway crime in downtown Nairobi to supply locals and tourists with ethnic art, fashion and artifacts. But this month, it will shut its doors, the latest victim of Kenya's crippled tourist trade.
The final blow was a decision last month by British Airways to suspend flights to the Kenyan capital after intelligence reports said a terrorist strike by Al Qaeda operatives was imminent. The governments of Britain, the United States and several Scandinavian countries subsequently advised their citizens against traveling to Kenya, causing tourists to cancel hotel bookings and throwing thousands of people out of work.
"This is the biggest kick in the teeth," said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourism Federation, a trade group of hoteliers, lodge owners and tour operators. "It's equivalent to leveling sanctions against Kenya."
The situation got so dire this week that Alan Donovan, the American owner of African Heritage, called for "mercy flights" of tourists from the United States to help rescue East Africa's largest economy.
"We need the Americans more than ever," said Donovan, a UCLA graduate who has lived in Kenya for 32 years. "They're our friends. Why have they deserted us?"
Among the thousands of people who have lost their jobs are hotel workers, red-robed Masai wildlife guides and factory workers who churn out T-shirts or whittle wooden curios for tourists.
"Kenya cannot be isolated in the fight against terrorism," said Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka. "We should not give advantage to terrorism by giving in."
Though British and American officials say they are constantly reviewing security alerts, it seemed unlikely that the travel warnings would be lifted soon.
"The real threats to Kenya's economy are not public warnings or the acts of security forces but the terrorists and their sympathizers, and the appearance that Kenya is not doing enough to stop them," U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson said in a recent newspaper commentary. "Another major attack here would inflict damage that no amount of public relations work could ever undo."
In the last five years, Kenya has been the target of two major attacks linked to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. In 1998, more than 200 people died and thousands were injured when the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in neighboring Tanzania were bombed.
