US backs Kenya's Ebola fight with Sh1.9 billion, targets 22 counties

Medical staff wear protective gear while treating Ebola patients at an MSF treatment centre in Goma, DRC, on June 2, 2026. [AFP]

Kenya will receive Sh1.9 billion ($14.5 million) from the United States to strengthen its readiness against Ebola Virus Disease, targeting 22 high-risk counties with new laboratories, trained personnel and emergency response centres.

The US Embassy in Nairobi said the funding builds on more than six decades of partnership between the two countries and covers disease surveillance, laboratory systems, healthcare worker training, emergency response coordination, risk communication and screening at points of entry.

More than 800 laboratory professionals will be trained in biosafety, biosecurity and testing procedures for viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

Two US-supported Kenya Medical Research Institute laboratories will join the National Virology Reference Laboratory in testing suspected samples, while two mobile laboratories will be deployed to high-risk areas to cut the turnaround time for results.

The package will also train more than 1,700 Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme disease detectives, 120 national responders through a National Rapid Response Team Training of Trainers programme and more than 160 county-level responders in high-risk border counties.

Twenty-seven county and national Emergency Operating Centres have been activated, with 12 more high-risk counties identified for new centres.

The Embassy grouped the support under three pillars, detect, prepare and respond, covering surveillance and contact tracing, healthcare worker training and facility readiness, and testing plus treatment for suspected cases.

"As a major transportation, trade and travel hub linking East and Central Africa, Kenya plays an important role in regional infectious disease preparedness and control," the Embassy said in the fact sheet on Thursday, May 9.

The current outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, has recorded more than 1,500 confirmed cases and more than 500 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone as of early July, with Uganda reporting a smaller cluster of about 20 confirmed cases.

The World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in May.

Kenya has not recorded a confirmed case despite the heightened alert, though authorities have intensified screening at airports and land borders.