Kenya defies AU decision on Ebola-hit countries

Updated Thursday, September 11th 2014 at 23:37 GMT +3

A nurse at Rift Valley General Hospital donned on protective gear before attending a 10 year old Liberian boy who was admitted at the hospital on suspicion of having Ebola virus. (Photo:Kipsang Joseph/Standard)

Kenya is not planning to lift the ban on entry of nationals from West African countries worst hit by the Ebola epidemic.
This comes even after the African Union leaders made a decision to have the ban on some countries lifted.
An emergency meeting of the AU's executive council on Tuesday to address the Ebola crisis, ruled that the ban on cross-border movement of people among member states should be lifted despite the disease raging in West Africa. The meeting was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in which Kenyan officials participated.
"We have agreed that countries allow people to move. Fighting Ebola must be done in a manner that doesn't fuel isolation or lead to the stigmatisation of victims, communities and countries," Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chairperson of the AU Commission said after the meeting.
Thursday, Director of Medical Services Nicholas Muraguri said the ban would stay in place until the Health ministry is convinced there is no risk of transmission of the deadly disease to Kenyans.
"We appreciate and respect the decision taken at AU, but individual countries have a leeway to determine their course of action depending on assessment of risks. For now, we still deem the risks to be too high to lift the ban," Dr Muraguri said Thursday.

He added: "But we are open to lifting the ban at some future date in line with the AU recommendation depending on how the situation evolves. The priority for us now to prevent the disease from reaching Kenya."
Kenya is among African countries that have banned entry of people from West Africa regions worst-hit by Ebola including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leona.
This came after strong public pressure from Kenyans who feared Ebola might have been brought into the country by people originating from those countries.
Thursday, Muraguri added that despite an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), they have not decided to ban nationals and travellers from there, but said the situation might change in future if the disease spreads widely within that country.
Next week, Transport, Immigration and Foreign ministers of countries in the East African region are expected to meet in Nairobi to harmonise their plans against the virus. http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/article/2000134669/kenya-defies-au-decision-on-ebola-hit-countries