Moina Spooner

Editor and writer, working for The Conversation Africa (@tc_africa) 🇲🇬 🇬🇧 🇰🇪 . Former Nation Media Group, Mail & Guardian Africa

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

Follow the The Conversation Africa channel on WhatsApp: https://t.co/1ll8NgDuuS

[Green Belt Movement @GreenBeltMovmnt]

🚨 A win for PEOPLE POWER! ✊🏾

The Environment and Land Court has ordered a halt to car park works and Nairobi Animal Orphanage activities within Nairobi National Park.

The petition by 4,642 Kenyans shows collective action matters. #SaveNNP

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@andrewsuleh Can you please share a link to the study, thanks

[Kassim Gabowduale @gabowduale]

Almost 20 trees were murdered in Lavington’s former Pallet Restaurant to make way for a petroleum station while their are 2 other petrol stations 50 meters apart on the opposite side of the roads @NemaKenya sleeping on the job.

[Reuters Africa @ReutersAfrica]

Nigeria's first Ebola patient in over a decade was not tested for the disease until 13 days after falling ill, officials said, a delay that raises questions about authorities' ability to contain an outbreak already spanning four African nations. https://t.co/KfK7jY0yV6

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@sarahkimani Wait for the 23rd…..

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@CKyobutungi Even though he had travelled through Uganda? Would assume there would be contacts made along the way?

[Kennedy Wandera @KennedyWandera_]

Shout-out to the healthcare workers on the frontline in the Democratic Republic of Congo #DRC. They deserve immense recognition for their incredible bravery, enduring not only the physical threat of a deadly Ebola disease, but also a severe, deeply hidden mental health toll.

They are silently doing their work. Not complaining, just saving lives and battling on while risking their lives daily to prevent a catastrophic global explosion of the Bundibugyo strain of the virus.

Massive respect.

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@MichKatami @sarahkimani @MeteoKenya I thought it was just me!

[Winnie Byanyima @Winnie_Byanyima]

Every day that @kizzabesigye1 is held in illegal detention, denied the best care that is his right, is a day of torture, of undermining his health and cutting short his life. This is intentional.
I appeal to President @KagutaMuseveni to act lawfully, and lift his threat to judges so that @kizzabesigye1 @EriasLukwago and other political detainees are released.

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@BmarshallCGTN My dad always had a theory - that they start on October 23rd… let’s see if it holds true again.

[Munchkin @BSonblast]

More than 100 people killed by drone strikes in Sudan… YESTERDAY ALONE.

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

Fact. One reason why outbreaks recur. A study “showed that the virus could be detected in 50% of male survivors 115 daysafter recovery and may linger for up to three years.”

https://t.co/RHLUp7z7Fz

[Mihr Thakar @MihrThakar]

According to guidelines from WHO, Ebola can linger in "immune-privileged" sites (such as the testicles) and be transmitted through semen from male survivors even after they recover.

[𝗗𝗿 𝗔𝗵𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗶, 𝕆𝔾𝕎 @DrAhmedKalebi]

𝐄𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐚 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐔𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚: 𝑺𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝑲𝒆𝒏𝒚𝒂 — 𝑨 𝑭𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒓 𝑷𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝑬𝒃𝒐𝒍𝒂 𝑰𝒔 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 🇺🇬 ✈️ 🇳🇬

Nigeria has today 20 October 2026 confirmed its first Ebola case in the current outbreak - a woman who arrived on an international flight from Uganda and received care for several days at a private hospital in Abuja before the diagnosis was established. She is now in isolation, 44 contacts have been identified, and response measures are under way. The transparency is welcome. Prompt reporting and action save lives.

We have already seen this script in Kenya. A traveller who passed through Uganda arrived in Nairobi and received care at a private hospital before Ebola was confirmed. Secondary infections subsequently emerged among relatives and hospital personnel. Contact tracing, quarantine and daily monitoring became central to preventing further spread.

Nigeria must therefore prepare for the possibility of a growing contact list and secondary infections, including among hospital personnel who may have been exposed before Ebola was recognised. These are possibilities requiring vigilance, rather than inevitable outcomes.

Contact tracing can become the Achilles heel of the response. Every effort must be made to identify and monitor everyone with a relevant exposure—in the hospital, at home and during travel. Each missed contact is a potential gap through which transmission can continue.

The woman’s earlier travel history, including whether she had been in DRC before Uganda, and where she acquired the infection have not yet been publicly established. Arrival from Uganda is the reported travel history; it does not, by itself, establish the place of infection.

Hospitals across the region must treat travel and exposure histories as essential clinical information. Patients with compatible symptoms and relevant exposure or travel to affected areas need immediate assessment for possible Ebola. Isolation and appropriate infection-prevention precautions must begin when the disease is suspected, while testing is arranged.

The period before recognition matters. Staff, other patients and caregivers may be exposed during that window. Protection must extend beyond doctors and nurses to attendants, cleaners, laboratory personnel and everyone handling potentially contaminated materials.

Nigeria has successfully contained Ebola before. Rigorous contact tracing, monitoring and quarantine where indicated, prompt isolation of symptomatic contacts, rapid testing and clear public communication will again be essential.

The priority now is to turn early detection and transparent reporting into effective containment.

#Ebola #Nigeria #Kenya #Uganda #HealthSecurity #ContactTracing #EbolaKE

[Oakland Institute @oak_institute]

.@IPUparliament – As Tanzania hosted IPU gathering under the banner of “good governance and empowering communities,” @SuluhuSamia regime was abducting Maasai men, escalating its repression of Indigenous communities.

Its goal? Clear Maasai from their ancestral lands to expand safari tourism and trophy hunting to 8 million visitors by 2030.

@Oleshangay @Mittaloak @DenisMoses14 @MariaSTsehai @landislife @amazonwatch @MaasaiMisa2022 @Survival

[Teklehaymanot G. Weldemichel @TeklehaymanotG]

Amidst all the claims & counterclaims around battlefield developments (@ACLEDINFO doesn’t still call this war btw), a few things are not being talked about. 1) that the entirety of Tigray remains under siege, and that people are likely dying of starvation and lack of access to

[Oakland Institute @oak_institute]

.@SuluhuSamia regime abducted & detained 5 Maasai men last week. Over 30 community members have been arrested in Ngorongoro over the past 2 months, while thousands of livestock have been confiscated in Loliondo.

Human rights conditions in northern Tanzania are rapidly worsening. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a calculated campaign to silence Indigenous land defenders and force Maasai communities off their ancestral lands to make way for safari tourism and trophy hunting.

@Mittaloak @Oleshangay @DenisMoses14 @MariaSTsehai @MaasaiMisa2022 @TheChanzo @IAMartin_ @Landislife @Roduza @davidpilling @KaamilAhmed @WedaeliC @WateteziTV @AJEPodcasts @LeMonde_Afrique

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@JobKamandao @KenyaAirways And don’t get me wrong, I am a KQ fan.

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@KenyaAirways you need to figure out your night flights & passenger comfort. Feeding passengers dinner and then breakfast 4 hours later on an 8 hour flight means nobody is getting any rest. (And nobody actually wants that breakfast.)

[Moina Spooner @Samooner]

@JobKamandao @KenyaAirways That’s the point. It’s not about the food. It’s everyone’s sleep that’s disrupted.