Trader wants Consumer Federation of Kenya suit on flights to Ebola-hit countries dismissed

Nairobi, Kenya: A businessman wants the High Court to throw out the case filed by the Consumer Federation of Kenya (Cofek) on flights to Ebola-hit West Africa.

Joseph Aura, who wants to be enjoined in the case where Cofek is demanding that Kenya Airways should stop its flights to the Ebola-stricken countries, told High Court Judge Isaac Lenaola that the consumer body had a one-sided concern as the disease can penetrate the country through other avenues.

Aura faulted the lobby's application to have KQ stopped from flying to affected countries, arguing that it is discriminatory as infected people can still enter Kenya through the borders.

"The measures targeted at KQ are clearly discriminatory in that they cannot temper any spread of Ebola via public transportation since any "infected" person can travel by road from any West African country to any other part of Africa and thereafter take a flight other than KQ to Kenya," said Aura's lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui.

Aura also claims in his court filings that Cofek neither consulted the public nor any frequent KQ flyer before lodging the suit. Through his lawyer, Aura said the United States had the cure to the deadly disease. He told the court that the vaccine and cure had been patented in October 2012.
The World Health Organisation's stand on the issue however is that there is no licensed cure for Ebola.

But KQ maintained that other carriers are still flying in the remaining countries that are termed to be of no threat. It said that its decision was similar to the other international carriers', which had only cancelled flights to Sierra leone and Liberia.  Lenaola ordered Aura to serve the parties and appear before the duty judge next week on Tuesday for hearing.