350+ Kenyan workers turned back from Saudi over Ebola rules

If you have Kenyan colleagues, domestic staff or friends waiting on a Gulf work visa right now, this story matters. Saudi Arabia has turned away hundreds of Kenyan workers over Ebola fears, and Kuwait has just stepped into the diplomatic talks trying to sort it out.

More than 350 Kenyan workers who had travelled to Saudi Arabia for new jobs landed back home at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi at around 1:30pm on Monday, 2 November. They had valid work visas. They were still turned away at the Saudi border.

Before they even got home, the group spent four days stuck at Sharjah Airport in the UAE while officials arranged their return flights. One of them, Mary Njau, told Kenya’s KBC that the group had travelled full of hope and came back disappointed. “We have come back, and it is very much frustrating,” she said, adding that they want their government to step in.

What exactly did Saudi Arabia announce?

On 30 October, Saudi Arabia suspended travel by its own citizens to Kenya and halted all visa categories for people travelling from Kenya. That covers work visas, visit visas and every other type.

The rules go further than just Kenya, too. Saudi Arabia is barring entry to anyone who has been in Kenya, or in any other country with an active Ebola outbreak, within the 21 days before they arrive. That includes people who flew through a third country on the way, which is why the Kenyan workers got stuck in Sharjah rather than being sent straight home.

For background on how this started, we covered the first wave of these restrictions in our earlier explainer on Saudi Arabia’s new Ebola rules, which set out who the ban applies to and why Saudi authorities acted.

Why is Kenya pushing back?

Kenya’s government has sent a formal diplomatic note to Saudi Arabia, arguing the restrictions are disproportionate and not backed by solid scientific evidence. Nairobi wants Riyadh to review and lift them.

Kenyan officials say all nine confirmed Ebola cases in the country are linked to a single cluster, traced back to one imported infection. They say there’s no evidence the virus has spread within the community beyond that cluster. That’s the core of Kenya’s argument: one contained cluster shouldn’t mean a blanket travel freeze.

So where does Kuwait fit in?

This is the part that should get attention here. Kenya has opened diplomatic talks with both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to push for a review of the restrictions. Both countries have agreed to pass Nairobi’s concerns up to their own governments and to arrange technical discussions on the issue.

Kuwait hasn’t announced its own entry ban on Kenyan travellers, at least not based on what’s confirmed so far. But being pulled into these talks means Kuwaiti authorities are watching the situation closely, and any decision here could affect Kenyan residents, workers and visitors in Kuwait too. You can follow how this develops in our international news coverage.

Why this matters for workers and families

Saudi Arabia is one of Kenya’s biggest overseas job markets. Government figures put the number of Kenyans living and working there at more than 350,000 as of July 2026. A travel freeze on that scale isn’t a small inconvenience, it touches a huge number of households back home who depend on that income.

The returnees who spoke to KBC flagged a real practical worry: if the restrictions drag on, their visas could expire before they’re ever allowed to take up the jobs they travelled for. That’s money spent on tickets, agency fees and paperwork, with nothing to show for it yet.

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