Kenya
Kenya deports 137 Ugandans in Ebola scare

Misanet.com / IPS, 26 November - Kenya's government decision to expel some 137 Ugandans attending a peace conference in its capital, has revealed serious security lapses at the country's points of entry. The Ugandans were allowed into Kenya despite a ban on residents from the Ebola ravaged areas of Uganda.

Government authorities, in their defence, say the Ugandans, two of whom had admitted attending the burial of Ebola victims, had lied about their home districts while being screened at the border.

- My ministry has noted that the organisers of the conference circumvented the Ugandan health authorities' plan to screen them for Ebola, Kenyan medical services minister Amukowa Anangwe told journalists here on the weekend.

The decision to deport the Ugandans was reached after a crisis meeting of top government, security and health ministry officials. Anangwe invoked the public Health Act in halting the meeting and deporting the Ugandans.

Most of the deportees were from Gulu, a district in northern Uganda where an outbreak of the Ebola virus started a month ago, and where a rebel group, the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging war against president Yoweri Museveni's government.

The delegates, who were hosted by a Nairobi tourist hotel, were attending a 'Kachoke madit' or peace meeting of Ugandan tribes affected by the conflict in the northern part of the country. They left for various border points Friday under heavy police escort in the interest of public health.

Of the 137 delegates, 63 were from Gulu and 42 from Kitgum, both ravaged by Ebola, according to Anangwe. The remaining 32 delegates, mainly Ugandans living in exile in Britain, were to be held in quarantine at the airport until they are flown back to Europe. None of the delegates have shown any signs of the illness, according to health officials.

The peace meeting had earlier been scheduled to take place in the northern Tanzanian resort town of Arusha, but was cancelled at the last minute due to Ebola concerns.

State Minister for security Marsden Madoka said his office is investigating the circumstances under which the meeting was rescheduled to Kenya. He said his office had not been informed of such a meeting.

Fears have been growing that the Ebola virus could spread to Uganda's neighbours since the outbreak began. Kenya and Tanzania have established emergency surveillance units, which have intensified their screening efforts at common border points with Uganda, and so far neither country has reported any case of the disease.

Kenya has quarantined 11 people, members of three families who had travelled to Uganda to attend funerals of Ebola victims. Anangwe said that members of the family had crossed into and from Uganda through unnamed border points.

- Within 24 hours of receiving the information, the ministry in conjunction with the provincial administration and the police managed to trace the families and to quarantine them at their homes, Anangwe said in Nairobi. He has urged Kenyans to avoid attending funerals of Ebola victims and those living along the border with Uganda to notify their local administration of all visitors coming in and out of the country.

Last week police arrested one person who had gone into hiding after attending the burial of a relative who had died from Ebola in Uganda. Health officials in Busia, a town on the Kenya-Uganda border, said the "suspect" declined to confess whether the relative had succumbed to Ebola, and instead insisted that the relative had already been buried in Gulu. The "suspect" had however not shown any signs of the disease.

Government officials say they are working closely with their Ugandan counterparts to contain the spread of the deadly virus, which has already killed 150 people in Uganda. Health advisories have been issued in the local media, for residents to avoid all close contact with infected persons.

Ugandan health officials are struggling to contain the disease, by tracking down individuals who have travelled in and out of the quarantined districts to attend burials of victims. Several cases have been reported in the southern Ugandan towns of Masindi and Mbarara since the first cases in the northern districts of Gulu and Kitgum were reported.

The migration of the Ebola virus, from the conflict region in the north to the agricultural region of Mbarara, is feared will lead to an economic set back for the East African country.

Ebola is one of the deadliest haemorrhagic fevers. It is caused by a virus and is spread through contact with virus-infected blood and body fluids. Symptoms include high fever, muscle pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, and internal bleeding. The disease kills up to 70 percent of those infected. 

Ebola was first reported in 1976 in the former Zaire. Since then, outbreaks have occurred in parts of central Africa, including Congo and Gabon, and in southern Sudan and lately Uganda. 

Sources: By Judith Achieng' (IPS) 

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