Kenya has confirmed a second Ebola infection, about a week after the country recorded its first case of the virus. The new patient is a close family member of the first patient, health authorities said on Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of Health, the second patient is a 39 year old man and a close family member of the first case. He fell ill on Tuesday while already in quarantine, developing fever, fatigue and joint pain. The ministry announced the confirmation in a statement on Wednesday.
The first infection was confirmed roughly a week earlier. That patient, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, travelled to Kenya and died two days later at a hospital in Nairobi.
The earlier case has raised concerns about deficiencies in border screening systems in the region. The patient drove from the DRC to Uganda and then flew to Nairobi from there. Because the border between the DRC and Uganda has been closed since May because of the outbreak, it is not clear how he was able to enter Uganda.
Alan Kasujja, executive director of the Ugandan government’s media centre, questioned how Kenya allowed the man to enter through its airport. “Leave Uganda out of this conversation. We don’t have Ebola here,” he wrote on X.
When asked how the patient was able to travel through three countries undetected, Kenya’s Director General for Health Patrick Amoth said last week that a meeting was scheduled with officials from the DRC, Uganda and the Africa CDC to investigate.
Kenya has intensified its national response since recording the first case. At the time, authorities traced everyone who came into contact with the patient and reported at least 57 people, with 10 immediately quarantined, Health Minister Aden Duale told journalists on October 7.
Screening measures have also been stepped up. On October 12, 2026, a Kenyan Ministry of Health official checked the temperature of a traveller at the Busia One Stop Border Post on the border between Kenya and Uganda, according to an AFP photograph.
Kenya is the fourth country to record a case linked to the Ebola epidemic in the DRC, which is the second largest on record globally with more than 9,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths.
Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths earlier in the year but was declared free of Ebola in August. A doctor who returned to France from the DRC in June tested positive, though there was no further spread of the virus.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, whether they are living or dead. The disease can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
The second patient is currently at a designated treatment centre, where he is receiving the appropriate care, the Health Ministry said. The ministry added that it will continue to share information on his progress.
