RIYADH — Saudi Arabia on Friday, October 30, suspended travel by its citizens to Kenya and halted the issuance of all types of visas to people arriving from Kenya, the Saudi Public Health Authority said in a statement carried by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) and the Saudi Press Agency. The measures are precautionary steps against Ebola, taken after Saudi health officials assessed the outbreak situation in Kenya.
Source: QNA via Fana News
"These measures include suspending travel by citizens to the Republic of Kenya and suspending the issuance of all types of visas to those arriving from Kenya," the authority said, in a statement also reported by Kenya's Eastleigh Voice. Entry is also barred for anyone who has stayed in Kenya, or in another Ebola-affected country, during the 21 days before arriving in Saudi Arabia — including travellers who try to enter through a third country. The authority said the health situation inside the Kingdom remains reassuring and is under continuous monitoring.
Kenya's outbreak is one cluster — but the regional picture is far bigger
Kenya's outbreak is small and, so far, contained to a single chain of infection. Health authorities there had confirmed nine cases and two deaths, all linked to the country's first imported case: a Kenyan man who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo, travelled through Uganda and arrived in Nairobi on October 3, tested positive for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola and died at Nairobi Hospital two days later, the Eastleigh Voice reported. Eight further infections were confirmed among his contacts, including relatives and healthcare workers, and Kenya's second death — a woman who was the third confirmed case — was recorded on October 23. Twenty contacts completed the mandatory 21-day quarantine and were cleared on Monday, while 98 remained under quarantine, according to the WHO, and Kenyan officials said the country had gone 10 days without a new infection as of October 30.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, where this outbreak was declared in May and where the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on May 17, remains by far the hardest hit: by October 26 it had recorded 10,141 confirmed cases and 4,928 deaths across eight provinces, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Kenya and Nigeria have both reported imported infections linked to the Congolese epicentre.
Kenya joins a restriction list Riyadh built in June
Friday's step extends a ladder of Saudi precautions that began in July 2019 and was strengthened in May 2026. In June, Riyadh suspended travel by its citizens and entry for arrivals from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan, and tightened screening for travellers arriving from countries bordering the affected areas. Kenya is the fourth country added to that list — and the first where the caseload is in single figures, a sign of how little risk the Kingdom is willing to carry at its entry points, which handle millions of pilgrims, workers and visitors every year.
What happens next depends on Kenya's clock: health experts say a country must record 42 consecutive days without a new case before an Ebola outbreak can be declared over, a call that also needs acknowledgement from the WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Kenya has served 10 of those days. Until that countdown completes, Saudi visas for travel from Kenya stay suspended — a direct hit for Kenyan workers, students, traders and pilgrims with Saudi plans, and a reminder that in the Gulf's tightly guarded health-security system, one imported cluster is enough to close a door.
Sources: Qatar News Agency (QNA), October 30, 2026 — Saudi Public Health Authority statement on the Kenya measures; The Eastleigh Voice (Kenya), October 30, 2026 — the authority's statement, Kenya's case cluster and the DRC toll (ECDC); Daily Sabah, October 30, 2026 — Kenya's nine cases, two deaths and 10 days without a new infection.