US wants top security for Kenya’s germ labs

US Senator Richard Lugar with Director of the Kenya Medical Research Institute Dr Solomon Mpoke during a press conference after he toured laboratories at the institute in Nairobi, November 12, 2010. Photo/STEPHEN MUDIARI

Kenya has been asked to beef up the security of its germ handling laboratories.

A strong team from the US Department of Defence, which has been in the country inspecting the government laboratories, on Friday raised concern that some of them were close to residential areas.

The visit by the team led by Republican Senator Richard Lugar was prompted by concerns that some of the Kenyan laboratories are not well protected and that dangerous organisms could fall in the hands of terrorists.

“The world is full of people keen to use dangerous biological material to achieve their political desires by harming others through diseases,” said Senator Lugar, who has spent a chunk of his time in the Senate addressing issues relating to bio-terrorism.

However, he said the US had no “actionable intelligence” to show that Kenyan laboratories posed a security threat. There is a strong American military presence in local research institutions.

“The fact that Kenyan facilities host a high collection of pathogens underlines the need for greater security as well as in the neighbourhoods,” Mr Lugar said after an inspection tour of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri).

The American advised the institute to strengthen its waste disposal mechanisms. Dr Solomon Mpoke, the Kemri director, said they had never experienced any insecurity incident, but spoke of plans to strengthen the fencing of their facilities.

Kenya was singled out for special attention because it neighbours Somalia, which has become the hub of terrorist groups. Mr Lugar said the tour was aimed at ensuring that the US works with Kenya to secure the laboratories.

The Lugar team was expected to recommend stringent vetting procedures for people working in local biomedical labs or demand that such dangerous samples be stored in the US.

Security concerns over labs handling pathogens have for many years been based on possible accidental escape into the environment as happened once in the US when an Ebola-like virus, called Reston, escaped from a monkey holding facility near Washington in 1989.

Fears of a bio-terrorism attacks were solidified in 2001 when an anthrax attack killed five people and infected 17 others. Also visited was the Institute of Primate Research, Karen. Kemri has five labs in Nairobi shared between Kenyatta National Hospital and its headquarters in Nairobi.

Another major biomedical laboratory at the Kemri Centre in Kilifi, is under the UK’s Wellcome Trust Research Programme.

The other top level laboratory handling highly contagious pathogens was built recently at the Kenyatta National Hospital’s campus of the University of Nairobi’s College of Health Sciences.