Kenya reassures travellers it's Ebola free

Due to the deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, Kenya Airways will temporarily suspend all its flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone to ensure it remains free of the virus.

The Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) has today released a statement to reassure travellers that there has been no cases of Ebola reported in Kenya to-date.

The board stresses the current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, which was first reported in March 2014, involves Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and that Kenya is not affected by the outbreak. As to date there has never been any recorded case of Ebola in this country.

The affected countries are thousands of kilometers from Kenya and indeed Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are closer to Madrid, Paris and London than they are to Kenya in East Africa.

The suspended flights into Kenya from Liberia and Sierra Leone are a result of advice of Kenya’s Ministry of Health as a measure to prevent the spread of Ebola from those countries until the outbreak there has been brought under control.

The Kenya government also announced other restrictions because of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa and is temporarily suspending entry into Kenya of any passengers who have passed through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Travellers from other countries in West Africa can come to Kenya by air just as they can travel at present on flights from West Africa to Europe, America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.

In addition, the international airlines have implemented screening for passengers boarding flights in West Africa and the Kenyan Government and Ministry of Health, working in close co-operation with the Kenya Airports Authority, have now set up arrangements at the international airport in Nairobi to screen all passengers arriving on flights from West Africa to prevent any infected person from entering the country and, if required, to provide medical care in an isolation unit.

KTB also advises the unlikeliness that travellers from the affected countries would come to Kenya overland by road as it could entail a journey of more than two weeks and would require driving through places like the Central African Republic, DRC or Southern Sudan where there are serious security issues and disruptions to road travel.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has clarified that Kenya’s Ebola risk profile has not changed, and has commended Kenya for its efforts in putting in place measures to prevent possible importation and to implement early detection and containment if a case is detected in an arriving traveller

Travellers staying in international hotels in Nairobi, at the coastal beach resorts or going on safari to the wildlife parks in Kenya at the present time are considered to be at no risk of contracting Ebola and there is no reason for visitors to cancel or postpone travel plans to Kenya.

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The distance between the Western Africa countries (Sierra Leone) that have reported cases and Kenya is about 7,723 km as per Google maps

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