Bring back our starving children from China, families beg

Patrick Webo father of Ann Webo who is stuck in Wuhan China following the Coronavirus outbreak addressing press at Uhuru Park, Nairobi. He appealed to the government to assist in bringing the students back to Kenya. [George Njunge/ Standard]

Relatives of Kenyan students stuck in China's Wuhan city have asked the government to help return them to Kenya.

Wuhan is the epicentre of the Coronavirus epidemic that has sent the world into a panic.

Speaking in Nairobi yesterday, the families said their kin in Wuhan were suffering. "Most of the time they are surviving on very little food," said Partick Webo, whose daughter is stuck in China.

"Every time I speak to her she is in distress."

On January 23, China imposed a lock-down in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province in an effort to quarantine individuals at the epicentre of the outbreak.

In Wuhan alone, there is an estimated 100 Kenyan students.

“There is an acute shortage of basic supplies. Our children, brothers and sisters have been forced to live on one meal a day," said Robinson Masinde, whose brother is in Wuhan.

“My brother is stuck on the nineteenth floor of a building in Wuhan since the lock-down."

As at February 18, 2020, the number of people infected with the virus had shot to 72,532. There have been 1,872 fatalities in China.

The families said their kin in China were ready to undergo the necessary tests in China before boarding planes home, and to be quarantined once home.

Kenyan ambassador to China Sarah Serem penned an emotional message of the tribulations Kenyans in Wuhan were facing.