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Hundreds of Kenyans have taken to the streets in the central town of Nanyuki to protest a US-built Ebola quarantine site meant for American citizens, with at least two people killed in the unrest.
Getting into it: The protesters have gathered every day this week near Laikipia Air Base, blowing whistles, setting fires, and clashing with police over a 50-bed unit the US military is building to quarantine American citizens who have been exposed to Ebola but aren’t yet showing symptoms. Per the US State Department, those high-risk Americans would be held at the facility (run by US Public Health Service officers) for a 21-day quarantine, and anyone who actually got sick would get shipped off somewhere else to be treated. Notably, US officials said exposed Americans would not be sent home.
The core of the outrage is why Kenya, which has no Ebola cases, should take on the risk at all. Some are demanding to know why the facility isn’t being built in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda, where the outbreak is actually spreading, accusing the US of caring only about itself. A Kenyan doctors union, meanwhile, threatened to strike, warning that the country should not become a “dumping ground.”
The fight has also played out in court. Kenya’s High Court first suspended the plan in late May after rights groups, including the Katiba Institute and the Law Society of Kenya, argued that Kenya simply isn’t equipped to safely hold Ebola patients and that the deal with Washington was struck behind closed doors. Then on Tuesday the court extended that freeze by another three weeks and told the government to put the full terms of its US deal on the table.
Despite all of this, work at the site has continued, with around 20 flights (including C-130 and C-17 military transport planes) landing in Nanyuki carrying equipment, physicians, engineers, and construction workers.
This all comes as Kenyan President William Ruto defended the project, telling reporters, “We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing,” while his health minister insisted the center was meant for “everyone,” not just Americans.
