Kenya's Health Ministry says Ebola hotel-meeting ban covers only Public Health staff

Kenya's Ministry of Health said on 10 October 2026 that the suspension of hotel meetings, seminars and conferences during the Ebola response applies only to staff of the State Department for Public Health and Professional Standards, The Star reported. The department said the measure is not a blanket suspension of government meetings held in hotels.

The suspension is set out in an internal memo dated 7 October 2026 and signed by Public Health Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni Muriuki, according to The Star. It tells heads of directorates, divisions and programmes to stop hotel meetings, seminars and conferences with immediate effect and until further notice.

Any exception needs prior approval from the Office of the Principal Secretary, the memo says. Unit heads were also told to keep technical officers available to support the ongoing response.

The State Department described the step as an internal administrative decision, The Star reported. It said the aim is to give priority to emergency preparedness, contact tracing and response, and to follow existing standard operating procedures for Ebola and other highly contagious diseases.

Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale said the suspension covers only the ministry's own events and is not a blanket ban on government meetings in hotels, as quoted by Capital FM on 10 October. According to Capital FM, he said Kenya is not facing a wider outbreak and described the case as imported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The memo followed the confirmation on 6 October of an imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease, a strain of Ebola, The Standard reported. Capital FM reported that the patient was a Kenyan man who had lived in the DRC for seven years. It said he travelled by road to Kampala, Uganda, and flew to Nairobi on 3 October while ill.

He was isolated at Nairobi Hospital, Capital FM reported. He died on 5 October, according to the World Health Organization, as quoted by Capital FM. The Standard reported on 10 October that he was buried on 6 October under public health guidelines.

Capital FM reported that the ministry had identified 57 contacts in its 7 October update, with 10 of them quarantined at the National Police Service Hospital and tracing of the rest continuing. The Standard reported that, as of 10 October, at least 60 contacts had been traced and 10 people placed in quarantine.

Duale said Kenya remains open to travel, tourism and trade, The Standard reported on 10 October.