Kenyans protest planned US Ebola quarantine facility

Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in central Kenya to protest a planned Ebola quarantine facility at a military base that would take in United States nationals.

Demonstrators rallied on Monday in the city of Nanyuki, days after Kenya’s High Court ordered the suspension of the plan. The suggestion that Kenya should host people exposed to the virus, an outbreak of which has killed over 200 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Uganda, has sparked anger in the country, which has recorded no cases of the virus.

Footage obtained by the Reuters news agency showed a crowd of about ⁠100 people on roads leading to the Laikipia airbase – site of the planned facility – blowing ⁠whistles and some riding atop a pickup truck.

Smoke could be seen rising from something burning on the road. The agency said police and the military had increased their presence on roads leading to the airbase.

A protester gestures beside a burning barricade during a demonstration against a proposed Ebola quarantine centre to be established by the United States at Laikipia airbase in Nanyuki, Kenya [Andrew Kasuku/AP]

US officials have said that a 50-bed unit is planned at the base to serve US citizens who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic.

However, a lawsuit arguing that ⁠the site could endanger public health, given Kenya’s fragile health system, and that the agreement lacked transparency, was accepted by Kenya’s top court on Friday.

The US government has said it intends to commit $13.5m towards Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts. However, few details regarding the planned centre have been released.

Health Minister Aden Duale said on Saturday that the agreement was part of ‌a wider push to strengthen emergency response systems, adding that the quarantine centre is intended for “everyone” and not exclusively for US nationals.