• Reports indicate Africans are being racially profiled and denied access to supermarkets, public transport. They are blamed for the rising cases of coronavirus in the country, a virus that originated from Wuhan, China.
Kenya Ambassador to China Sarah Serem
NAIROBI -Kenya’s Ambassador to China Sarah Serem is under fire from Kenyans for her silence and inaction as Kenyans are allegedly mistreated in the country.
According to a Citizen TV report on Thursday, Kenyans are among Africans who have been ejected from their house in Beijing.
Reports indicate Africans are being racially profiled and denied access to supermarkets and public transport. They are blamed for the rising cases of coronavirus in the country, a virus that originated from Wuhan, China.
According to Chinese Health officials, 61 imported coronavirus cases – out of 63 – were reported in Mainland China, triggering the hateful and racial profiling.
Those affected have been forced to sleep out in the cold after failing to get any assistance from Kenya’s mission in Beijing.
A Kenyan who anonymously spoke to Citizen TV said she slept outside the Kenyan embassy for two days without getting help, with mission officials only telling her to go to a police station. The police said they would not help.
The woman said many Africans are facing the same problems, noting there are two pregnant women who cannot access hospital.
In Kenya, when two Chinese nationals were profiled and taunted in Kibera, the Chinese Embassy in Kenya advised against racist remarks against its citizens.
The embassy tweeted Thursday evening that such treatment could endanger their lives.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang acknowledged there are problems in the manner in which African foreigners have been handled.
“We pay high attention to the incidents and misunderstanding occurred in this process – preventing the spread of the coronavirus from both within and without of the country . We urge relevant authorities to improve their work, hope all foreigners in China will strictly observe local anti-epidemic regulations,cooperate with and support us in fighting the virus,” Geng said in a statement shared by China’s embassy in Nairobi,
This comes weeks after Kenyan students living in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, said they were yet to receive the Sh11.3 million pledged by the government.
