Kenyans and other social media users mostly drawn from African nationalities went on a online craze following forced return back home of Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Director Africa Center for Disease Control (CDC) by airport officials in Frankfurt, Germany amid claims of harassment and mistreatment allegations to during routine visa check
Ogwell was on his way to attend the World Health Summit opening slated for Sunday, October 16, in Berlin Germany when he experienced the ordeal.
He lamented through his twitter account expressing frustrations as a result of immigration personnel who he blamed to be of the thought that he wanted to stay back illegally alluding that his stay to attend the event was in doubt after an encounter.
“I am happier and safer back home in Africa. They invite you then mistreat you. It is time to stay away from non-friendly territories for me… Very irritated. I’m done!” read part of the tweet by Ogwell.
In an update later in the day, the CDC director said he decided to travel back to Africa.
The incident caused uproar among online users who expressed deep outrage over the developments and castigated the act.
Ogwell’s twitter thread aroused a high traffic engagement including World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“It is absolutely critical that all World Health Summit participants from Africa and all other countries are treated with respect,” replied Tedros.
In a response to a tweet, Frankfurt Airport also took to Twitter to apologize and at the same time denounced any discrimination against passengers in response to the sentiments and asked him to lodge a formal complaint.
“As an international airport, we welcome all passengers and do not tolerate any form of discrimination or racism. We would like more information about this incident,” stated the airport management.
The World Health Summit also responded to the matter, urging interested parties to facilitate the entry of the CDC director into Germany and urged authorities to respect African delegates traveling to attend the summit.
“We consider Dr Ogwell’s situation to be very worrying and we hope the situation clears up soon. The voice and expertise of Dr. Ogwell and that of the African Center of Disease Control (CDC) are paramount and essential to the World Health Summit,” read a response tweet by WHO summit organisers.
CDC was one of the stakeholders invited to share insights at the summit.
The president of the World Health Summit, Axel Fries, confirmed Ogwell’s arrival at the conference’s hotel and seeking for his full contribution to the summit.