Branson talks up Kenya

THE heart of Africa's tourist trail is "back in business", according to Sir Richard Branson.

The boss of Virgin Atlantic was in Kenya yesterday to launch a campaign encouraging Britons to return to the east African country after months of political uncertainty and violence.

More than a thousand people were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced during the violence following December's contested elections.

Images of tribal bloodshed on the streets shocked the world and, while it was focused outside visitor areas, it led to a crisis in the tourist trade, upon which around four million Kenyans depend.

In February, Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader, now prime minister, Raila Odinga, agreed a power-sharing deal brokered by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. But travellers have been slow to return. In the first three months of the year, the Kenya Tourist Board predicts a record fall in tourism of more than 70%. Branson said this had cost his airline business many "millions of pounds".