NAIROBI, Kenya May 29 – Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi says Kenya is taking a proactive stance in strengthening its public health emergency preparedness through the establishment of a US-backed Ebola facility and 16 additional preparedness centres across the country.
Speaking during a press conference on Friday, Mudavadi emphasized that the move is part of a broader national strategy to enhance rapid response capacity in the event of an Ebola outbreak or other infectious disease emergencies.
“We are lucky so far that we don’t have any Kenyan who is affected, but we should not pretend that it may not happen. We should not pretend that we may not be required to help in the coordination of an international original response. So Kenya can become an anchor of these kinds of international interventions,” he stated.
He noted that the facilities are designed to improve early detection, isolation, and treatment capabilities, while supporting coordinated response efforts between local and international health partners.
“Forget about the misleading impression, that setting up facilities of this nature are geared to only handle foreign people. No, Kenya is setting up almost 16 intervention centres of that nature, because we don’t know.,” he stated.
We are being prepared, we are being proactive. Surely, we cannot be so stupid to go and just say we are bringing a disease and carrying it and sprinkling it among our people. No, we are being proactive.”
He further clarified that the programme is preventive in nature, aimed at safeguarding public health rather than responding to an active outbreak, and urged the public to rely on verified information to avoid the spread of misinformation regarding the project.
The government says the expanded network of preparedness centres will strengthen Kenya’s overall health security infrastructure and improve its ability to respond swiftly to potential cross-border health threats.
