NAIROBI, Kenya | October 7, 2026 — Public health and laboratory professionals have raised concerns over Kenya’s preparedness to contain Ebola following confirmation of the country’s first reported case, calling for increased staffing, adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and a coordinated response involving all healthcare cadres.
The Kenya Environmental Health and Public Health Practitioners’ Union (KEHPHPU), the Kenya National Union of Medical Laboratory Officers (KNUMLO) and other health professional bodies made the demands during a media briefing in Nairobi on Wednesday, hours after the Ministry of Health announced the confirmed Ebola case.
Public Health Officers Call for End to 75-Day Strike
Speaking during the briefing, KEHPHPU Secretary General Brian Ashira said public health officers play a critical role in disease detection, surveillance and contact tracing, particularly at Kenya’s points of entry and within communities.
He said officers stationed at border points are responsible for screening travellers, identifying suspected cases and conducting disease surveillance and contact tracing.
Ashira expressed concern that the Ebola case had been confirmed at a time when public health officers have been on strike for 75 days.He called on the Ministry of Health to engage the striking officers and work towards resolving the dispute.
“Our demands are clear. Number one, we want to see the Ministry of Health engage the public health officers in this country. We want to see an end to the public health officers’ strike in this country,” he said.
Unions Demand Whole-of-System Ebola Response
The union also called for a whole-of-system approach to Ebola preparedness, saying the response should bring together public health officers, laboratory personnel, nutritionists, clinicians and other healthcare workers.
“We need to see a whole-of-society, a whole-of-system approach to the issues to do with Ebola in this country,” Ashira said.
“We want to see the position of lab being respected. We want to see the position of nutritionists being respected. We want to see the position of clinicians being respected. We want to see the position of PHOs being respected.”
Public Health Officers Demand Ebola Training and PPEs
The union further criticised the approach to Ebola preparedness training, arguing that frontline workers directly involved in disease detection and response should be prioritised.
Ashira questioned the focus on training senior officials while public health and laboratory personnel working directly on disease detection remain exposed.
“If you train a chief officer on Ebola preparedness, a chief officer is not a first-time responder to epidemics,” he said.
“The PHOs, the lab people and the first people in the community are the ones who respond to epidemics.”
The union called for all public health and laboratory officers to receive specialised training on Ebola preparedness and response.It also demanded adequate PPEs, including heavy-duty gloves, for frontline workers handling suspected cases.
“We want to see all our colleagues being given the necessary PPEs, the heavy-duty gloves, all the necessary, the requisite PPEs to be able to manage the Ebola,” Ashira said.
The union further called for the establishment and equipping of isolation centres across the country, saying some facilities currently have rooms designated for isolation without the equipment required to handle isolation and quarantine cases.
Union Demands Higher Risk Allowance
Risk allowance emerged as another major concern during the briefing, with Ashira arguing that healthcare workers exposed to infectious diseases should receive comparable compensation regardless of their professional cadre.
He claimed that some doctors receive a risk allowance of KSh50,000, while public health officers and laboratory personnel receive between KSh2,000 and KSh3,000.
The union is demanding that the risk allowance for its members be reviewed upwards to KSh100,000.
Laboratory Officers Issue One-Week Strike Notice
KNUMLO Nairobi Branch Secretary General Denis Oduor said laboratory professionals were also considering industrial action over what he described as inadequate compensation for the risks they face.
Oduor said laboratory officers played a critical role in confirming the Ebola case through laboratory testing.
“The first case that was reported by the CS, which we appreciate, is that that case would not have been a case if it was not actually data that was received from the laboratory,” he said.
He said the union would hold an advisory meeting before issuing a one-week strike notice if the government fails to address its concerns.
“We will issue a one-week strike notice, that is actually well anchored in the labour laws. We will withdraw all our services from the counties, from the National Public Health Lab,” Oduor said.
He urged the government to engage laboratory professionals, saying the planned industrial action should not be interpreted as an attempt to take advantage of the Ebola situation.
Health Professionals Raise Staffing and Surveillance Concerns
Mohamed Dubar, Chair of the Kenya Health Professional Society, commended healthcare workers and public health teams for identifying the Ebola case and initiating containment measures.
Dubar called for stronger staffing, adequate equipment and robust surveillance systems, warning that Kenya must be sufficiently prepared to detect and manage infectious disease risks.
“We are not blaming an individual or anybody. But the issue is whether the system was adequately staffed, equipped, informed, coordinated and empowered to manage the risk,” Nubar said.
He also raised concerns over inadequate holding facilities at points of entry and disruptions to digital surveillance systems during the transition involving the National Public Health Institute (NPHI).
The health professionals said strengthening frontline staffing, surveillance, protective equipment, laboratory capacity and coordination would be critical to containing the outbreak and protecting healthcare