(Posted 06th October 2026)
In a hammer blow to Kenya’s tourism industry has the Ministry of Health just confirmed that the country has suffered its first Ebola case. Presently the annual Magical Kenya Travel Expo is ongoing in Nairobi and has in fact been opened only earlier this morning.
According to a report seen did the infected Kenyan man live for the past several years in Congo DR, where presently the arguably worst ever Ebola outbreak has taken hold for the past few months. Case and casualty numbers from Congo are varying but speak of many thousands of infected and about 4000 deaths so far.
Given the experience Uganda suffered, after equally cases were ‘imported’ from Congo into the country, with immediate travel restrictions for Ugandans and anti travel advisories coming down thick and fast at the time, it remains to be seen what is in store for Kenya as far as that fate is concerned.
Health Minister Aden Duale said the patient, who fell ill a month ago, and was treated in several hospitals in DR Congo, died days after arriving in Nairobi. Investigations are reportedly underway to establish how he was able to board a flight In Entebbe and evade / avoid the ongoing health-check and reporting requirements and the search is underway to establish any and all contact persons who had come into immediate contact with him while travelling to Nairobi and while in country.
Duale said the patient boarded a flight on Saturday and underwent ‘normal public screening‘ on arrival at the main airport in Nairobi before he was transferred by a relative to a hospital in the city.
Duale said that after being taken to the Nairobi Hospital, the patient was transferred to an isolation facility which was built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was there that the patient “developed fever, chills, intense fatigue and weakness, painful swallowing, muscle pain and bleeding under the skin. Doctors suspected a viral haemorrhagic fever based on his symptoms and travel history and collected samples for testing. The sample tested positive for Ebola Bundibugyo virus,” Duale said.
According to the Cabinet Secretary the patient had been living and working in the DRC for the past seven years and fell ill about a month ago and was treated at several hospitals in the DRC before travelling to Uganda by road as he made his way back to Kenya.
Cabinet Secretary Duale further reportedly also said the patient apparently boarded a Jambojet flight from Entebbe to Nairobi at Entebbe International Airport and arrived at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Saturday, October 3, at 1:10 pm.
Health authorities have placed the country’s border points, rather belatedly, on high alert and are monitoring for possible additional cases.
Duale said 28 contacts, including family members and health workers who cared for the patient, had been identified. Another 23 passengers who traveled on the same flight from Uganda were being traced.
More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in DR Congo this year, in what is the arguably most deadly known outbreak of the disease.
Meanwhile has Jambojet also issued a public statement, confirming full cooperation with the Kenyan health authorities.
