Kenya on Monday banned all flights to and from neighboring Somalia due to security reasons.

The move came after concerns about possible terrorist attacks from Somalia have been raised recently with the United States warning last week that both Kenya and Ethiopia could be targets of suicide attacks by "extremist elements" from the Horn of Africa nation.

Kenya's principal immigration officer J. K. Ndathi has written to all staff at various exit stations to inform them of the ban, which took effect on Monday until further notice.

Ndathi, however, said in an open letter that chartered flights will not be affected by the ban but they must get clearance a week before the date of the flight.

"All chartered flights to Somalia must get clearance one week before the flight, which must be accompanied by the passenger manifest, travel documents and reasons for travel," Ndathi said.

Authorities said the order will affect scheduled six-days-a- week flight service from Nairobi to Mogadishu and three other Somali cities offered by two carriers -- Diallo and East Africa Express airlines -- as well as numerous cargo flights.

The flights ban has drew immediate protests from Kenyan lawmakers who have demanded the lifting of the embargo for cargo planes.

"Kenya-Somalia border has been wide open for the entire 15 years of the failed state of Somalia. What is the rationale this hour to suspend the flights?" asked legislator Maoka Maore.

He argued that the suspension of the flights is likely to affect export of khat to the war-ravaged country.

Khat traders stand to lose more than 1 million U.S. dollars, said the lawmaker as he appealed to Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki to intervene and have the ban rescinded. Kenya, he said, is likely to lose business to Ethiopia, whose flights are still flying to Somalia.

This is the third time in the past seven years that the Kenyan government has imposed such a ban. The first ban was in 1999 and another in 2001.

The U.S. previously warned that radical Somali Islamists had threatened suicide attacks in Kenya and Ethiopia, countries that support the Somali transitional government, and urged Americans in the nations to use "extreme caution." But the Somali Islamists dismissed the alert.

Last weekend Kenyan authorities briefly detained several senior Islamists whose small plane landed at Nairobi's Wilson Airport after being diverted by rough weather from its destination in Somalia.

Source: Xinhua