Uganda used to be an Ebola buffer for Kenya. Not anymore
A Uganda People's Defence Force officer directs travellers at the Mpondwe border post after Uganda closed its frontier with the Democratic Republic of Congo to contain the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, in Kasese District, on May 28, 2026.
Ebola was first identified in 1976 in what was then Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in southern Sudan. In all the years since, Kenya had never recorded a case. That changed on October 5, 2026, when an imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease was confirmed in Nairobi.
