If Kenyans evacuated from West Africa have Ebola, be afraid

What you need to know:

  • Red Cross and the ministry, in the meantime, should tell us how prepared they are to handle the Ebola victims without risking the lives of Kenyans.

On Tuesday, the Nation featured an article by Kenfrey Kiberenge, “Twelve Kenyans in Liberia to fly home”. I have been following this news.

While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still “thinking”, Abbas Gullet and his Red Cross team saw it wise to evacuate them. That decision pressed a raw ministry nerve, and the conversation that ensued was telling. I thought they were supposed to work together!

Red Cross and the ministry, in the meantime, should tell us how prepared they are to handle the Ebola victims without risking the lives of Kenyans.

Well, while they get their act together, my greatest concern is different but not divorced from the above confusion.

The ministry, the director of medical services and the nurses are quiet on Ebola preparedness, yet they are the people who must deal with this crisis. What resource allocations have been made by relevant ministries towards preparedness?

What measures have been put at airports to screen travellers and protect health workers? Remember Ebola is now a global phenomena.

Which of our hospitals are adequately equipped and prepared for the very possible case of Ebola? Have personnel — medical, military, etc — been trained and psychologically prepared to handle Ebola? If these questions cannot yet be answered, then we have already sacrificed Kenyans to Ebola.

JOYCE OWINO, University of Eastern Africa, Baraton.