One key question about my country was on my mind last week as I arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) Nairobi, Kenya. Is complying with the international certificate of vaccination against yellow fever no longer an entry or re-entry requirement for both nationals and foreigners coming to Ghana? My unforgettable experience at (JKIA) reminded me that back home our casual attitude to matters of seeming importance may not be helping us in some ways. I now believe sincerely that Ghana is a place to get away with murder and it begins right at our main port of entry, Kotoka International Airport (KIA). We scream unnecessarily at ourselves in the name of politics and rather gloss over essential details. We are forgetting that in a competitive world of serious business, simplistic attitudes would not take us far. I got a rude reminder of how the languid approach we give to serious business, particularly of things bothering on local and international standards and processes might be hurting our country on arrival at JKIA last week. I have been to Kenya four times but this last visit left me with a bit of sourness at the point of entry. My sourness was more to do with attitude rather than anything else. At some stage I thought I was being framed and wished I had stayed put at my comfort zone at home and never should have responded to the invitation at this other end. The rest of my 5 days in Nairobi though were fantastic, meeting incredibly talented and intelligent young ladies from some parts of Africa and discussing the “value loaded leadership” that these girls would represent, going forward in the twenty-first century Africa. My journey on Kenya Airways, one of my two most admired Airlines on our continent, was a bit regretful this time around with four good hours of delay which passengers only got to know at the time of checking in. Never mind the buffet dinner they set up for their waiting passengers at the Landing Restaurant where servers behind the buffet table dished out mean portions to the very people supposed to benefit from the dinner while in the full glare of diners, they filled up “take-away” containers for themselves. A flight that should have left Accra at 8.40pm finally departed after 12 midnight. One arrived at the other end very tired and dejected. I had already missed two crucial presentations and a pre-arranged interview by the time I got to my hotel at 12.30pm Kenya time. My first encounter at the arrival hall, thinking that without any visa regime between Ghana and Kenya, I was going to get out quicker was a fallacy. From nowhere, this Port Health official walked up to me at the point of joining the queue to go through immigration and took my passport. She immediately took a phone call and would not answer my persistent questioning as to why she had taken my passport. Instead, she signalled for me to follow her. In the process, randomly, she picked the passports of two other ladies one of whom was a returnee Kenyan and two other Nigerian gentlemen. I initially got angry. Why was she picking on us? Did any of us looked like we were entering Kenya to be a burden on their public funds? Did we look like we were carrying drugs or any forbidden items? The questions that were going through my mind were many. For good seven minutes, we were still following this woman who was busy speaking in a local dialect on her phone and pretending not to mind us. I did not want to press too much in case I got unnecessarily delayed. When she finally found the courtesy to talk to us in a squashed cubicle with others lined up outside, she queried why we were not holding the yellow international vaccination card. She said it was an offence to travel to Kenya without a yellow fever vaccination card and that she was mandated to either get us vaccinated at the airport or be deported. She was that brush. I wondered. Would the Port Health not be worried about cholera vaccination rather? I overheard her telling another passenger who had been stopped that they are particular with people coming from “endemic” countries. Endemic countries indeed, what, is it guessing from our colour? I blamed myself for getting into this avoidable mess. I had detached my yellow card from my passport years ago because it was getting defaced attached to my already two-in-one bulky passport. That was the one reason why I was not carrying my yellow card at the time. The other reason was that I have not carried it for many years because it never gets inspected at any port of entry I have used in a while. I was being proved here that I was wrong in my assumptions. No amount of explanation was going to fly with this Port Health lady. Eventually, I gave up, changed money at the airport and paid as much as 1,500 Kenyan Shillings, the equivalent of almost $20 to get vaccinated. At a point, I was contemplating challenging her to deport me but no; I did not want my passport to be tainted as such. I was directed to a room, got my jab and almost instantly, a yellow card was issued to me after almost two hours of go here and wait there. What a cheap but expensive way of making revenue. Thank God the person detailed to pick me up was patient and waited for a little longer. My agony otherwise would have been 'double double'. I have, since this experience, cast my mind as far back as I can and yet, cannot recollect the last time I saw any Port Health officials at my own KIA inspecting the yellow fever vaccination cards. The only time I see them is at the departure lounge where they check on passengers carrying food items. So, why are we, back home, not checking the yellow fever vaccination cards of passengers, both local and foreign if it is still an international travel requirement? I do not wish to think that we are letting it pass to indeed add on to our accolades as a friendly nation. Ghana incorporated is on its path to becoming an emerging market. I always believe that like any business entity wanting to stay relevant, thinking locally and acting globally, Ghana needs to go through a deep searching strategic exercise benchmarking against those countries in Asia who started just like us because we seem to be leaving too many gaping gaps. We definitely have the capacity. However, our greatest faux pas and perhaps the largest hindrance to acting strategically, concentrating on the small necessities and grasping the bigger picture, is that we are politicking too much and losing sight of the directions we need to follow. Our own Port Health authorities may not be aware. The airlines are failing to alert us. The embassies and high commissions may be too busy with taking visa fees to build up their reserves for salaries and not concerned with advice on port health. So therefore, my unforgettable experience with an overzealous Port Health official at the JKIA at Nairobi is a lesson that I wish to pass on to all Ghanaian travellers, particularly those heading through JKIA. Travellers must endeavour to get a yellow fever vaccination, process a yellow card and ensure they carry it on them before they travel. If for nothing at all, you would have saved yourself humiliation, time and above all, the fee paid could come in handy for the development of our own public health system. I definitely made my local polyclinic $20 poorer. Author: Vicky Wireko Andoh/vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com