Coronavirus: Uproar As 239 Land in Kenya Airport from China

There has been shocks and anger across Kenya when a China Southern Airlines flight landed on Thursday in Nairobi,  with 239 people, triggering anger and shock across the East African country.

This is coming on the heel of an announcement the country made on Wednesday that it had resumed flights to China.

The citizens had raised concern on social media, questioning the country’s preparedness to deal with the novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, which originated from the Asian country.

READ: See How Coronavirus Is Contained in China [Video]

Many African countries have ceased operating China flights.

Activist Boniface Mwangi had wondered if President Uhuru Kenyatta loves the country.

“Because if he did, no Chinese flight would be allowed to land in Kenya as long as the coronavirus remains a threat. Our health system can’t handle a coronavirus outbreak,” he wrote on his social media page.

Corroborating Mwangi, Nick Nimrod wrote: Just imagine China — with all the first-class resources, they haven’t managed to contain the virus from spreading for a whole two months…Now imagine how long it will take Kenya…How long Nairobi will be a ghost town…How bad the economy will hit us.”

READ: #CoronavirusNigeria Trends As Nigeria Witness First Incident in Lagos

At a press conference, Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo had assured the country that measures were put in place to ensure that the 239 Chinese passengers travelling to Kenya were free of the disease.

More than 100 Kenyan students are stranded in China due to the outbreak while Algeria and Egypt have confirmed cases of COVID-19.