Kenya Rejects Requests to Quarantine Foreign Travellers over Ebola

GOOBJOOG NEWS | NAIROBI: Kenya has ruled out serving as a quarantine centre for travellers from other countries seeking to meet foreign entry requirements, saying it will not hold visitors or issue Ebola-related travel clearance certificates.

The Ministry of Health said Kenya would not accommodate requests from other jurisdictions to quarantine travellers on their behalf, making clear that foreign governments cannot use Kenyan facilities to fulfil their own public health entry requirements.

The ministry also ruled out issuing quarantine certificates or Ebola-free certificates for travel purposes.

“Kenya will not serve as a quarantine centre for any jurisdiction. Travelers from other countries will not be held in Kenya, to meet another country’s entry requirement,” the ministry said.

The announcement came as Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale confirmed that all seven patients who survived Kenya’s Ebola outbreak had recovered and been discharged from hospital. The country recorded nine confirmed infections and two deaths.

Duale said the final patient was discharged on Wednesday, while all identified contacts had completed the mandatory 21-day monitoring period.

“Today, with the discharge of the last patient, we can confirm and tell the world that seven patients have recovered and all contacts have completed their follow-up monitoring,” he said.

Five patients were discharged on November 3, another on November 6, and the final patient on November 11.

Kenya identified 135 contacts linked to the outbreak, all of whom completed monitoring. The government said it would maintain heightened surveillance, including screening at all 26 points of entry, where more than 760,000 travellers have already been screened.

The country must still complete 42 consecutive days without a new case before the outbreak can officially be declared over.

The ministry said Kenya remained open to business, travel and public gatherings, with no restrictions on movement.

Kenya’s announcement comes as the wider Ebola outbreak continues to affect the region, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where more than 11,000 confirmed infections and over 5,300 deaths have been reported.