By Okong’o Oduya
The Busia Border is one of the major entry points for immigration at the heart of Kenya and Uganda. This has always been seen as one of the schnitzel entry points for refugees before being processed to the refugee camps.
The Immigration Officials said they have put all measures in place to detect any sign of Ebola victim crossing to Kenya from neighboring countries. This comes after the ministry of health raised the alarm of the outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on 8th April.
Speaking to Talk Africa the Department of immigration in Busia confirmed to have recorded 12 citizens from DRC whom they tested and none of the results came out positive of the virus.
Evelyn Wadela, Ported Officer In Charge of Immigration in Busia border said they have been screening every individual crossing the country from Uganda to detect any sign of the disease.
“When we learnt that there is an outbreak in Congo we have been screening every individual coming in the country using this border. So far we have screened more than one thousand two hundred people crossing to Kenya since the outbreak and we have not detected any including 12 people from Congo,” she said
According to Wadela, their counterparts in Uganda cannot allow any person detected with Ebola virus to cross in Kenya adding that as a department they are ready to handle any situation when it may arise.
She further explained the measures they have put in place if a case was to arise of any Ebola virus detection “If any case is detected any sign of Ebola victim on transit we put him/her in custody for 21 days monitoring him/her before is released but still we will escort the individual with information proving that he/she is safe.”
However, she said they don’t consider people crossing into the country using un-gazetted routes to the country since they don’t have their officers there.
“I may not know the exact number of people from the affected country that access the country using porous routes here. The routes are not gazetted to send an officer there. So far we have no knowledge of any person coming to the country. What I know any genuine person crossing in a foreign country must use proper routes unless is not a straightforward one,” said Wadela
The officer confirmed that so far there is no any single case of Ebola virus in Kenya adding that as a department they have all measures in place to keep Kenya free from the virus. This comes at the same time when Cabinet Secretary Hon. Cecil Kariuki confirmed to the country that Kenya was safe from Virus
