Vendors selling plastic and alternative bags [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]

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Foreign travellers visiting Kenya with the duty-free plastic shopping bags will have to leave them at the port of entry.

This is according to the National Environmental and Management Authority (NEMA).

NEMA's directive comes after last week's court ruling that banned the use of plastic bags in Kenya beginning today.

“Since duty free shops at airports are considered to be outside the Kenyan territory, bags used at this point are not affected by the ban. However, any traveller coming into Kenya with duty free bags shall be required to leave the same at the entry points,” said NEMA director general Geoffrey Wahungu.

Kenya now joins other African countries like Erite, Rwanda and Mauritania in prohibiting the use of plastics.

They have also been banned in Cameroon, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Malawi.