Why Kenyans are opposing a US-Backed Ebola Facility
The project was revealed by the American press on 27 May. It consists of opening in Kenya a 50-bed quarantine centre for American patients suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus, which is currently raging in the east of the DR Congo.
A site was chosen in Nanyuki to receive Americans who have been exposed to the virus, near the Laikipia military base, located 190 kilometres north of the capital, Nairobi.
The plan came about at the request of Washington, while Kenya has currently no Ebola case.
But the news caused anger in the country and hundreds of Kenyans started protesting against the plan from Monday.
Anger, protests and court orders
Some Kenyans accuse the US of offloading the health risk of caring for patients.
"Kenya is not an American colony!" protesters chanted on Tuesday as they brought an Ebola coffin to the health ministry.
“If Ebola is too dangerous for Americans, it’s also too dangerous for us,” some of the residents of Nanyuki who protested told RFI. "They are asking their government not to accept any suspected cases of Ebola in the country."
The march also turned violent. Protest organiser Patrick Wahome said two people were killed in central Kenya by gunshot wounds after police opened fire on Tuesday. A security source also said two people had died but did not specify the cause of death.
While the Kenyan President Ruto defends the idea, a complaint was filed on 28 May by the civil society organisation Katiba Institute. A Kenyan court last week replied by temporarily suspending the plan in response to a lawsuit from a legal advocacy group.
Then Kenya's High Court on Tuesday blocked the proposed facility for another three weeks, and ordered the government to disclose its agreement with Washington.
Kenyan Judge Patricia Nyaundi on Tuesday even issued an order barring the Kenyan government from taking any steps to build or begin operations at the facility in the town of Nanyuki before the case is resolved.
The judge also ordered the government to disclose all agreements and operational protocols related to the facility within seven days and scheduled the next hearing for 23 June.
Dr. Kahura Mundia, the deputy chairperson of the Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), said this week on Citizen TV in Kenya that, if not well-prepared, allowing Ebola patients to travel beyond the borders of the DRC and Uganda would only contribute to spreading the disease further.
Opposition MP Willis Evans Otieno highlighted the irony of Kenya agreeing to host suspected cases on its territory, even though "the powers pushing for this arrangement will be the first to restrict our movements", if a case were to be detected.
A US centre for US citizens?
However, US military aircraft have continued to fly in staff and equipment in recent days, according to a US official and diplomatic sources.
A US military C-130 transport plane flew into Nanyuki on Friday afternoon last week, according to the flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
Senior US health official Mehmet Oz told reporters in a White House briefing on Tuesday that President Donald Trump's administration is confident the State Department will be able to work with Kenya to establish the facility.
"I think we're going to work out a very favourable arrangement with Kenya," Oz said. "They're going to do the right thing for everybody, and I think it's a perfect solution."
"American officials, doctors, and clinicians will be at this facility, treating American citizens at the facility," the official said. "Our highest priority is containing the spread of Ebola and offering the highest clinical care to Americans."
The US intends to provide $13.5 million for Kenya's Ebola preparedness effort. The facility would be meant to receive Americans who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic. Patients who develop symptoms would be sent for care in other countries, US officials have said.
The Trump administration has said it "cannot and will not allow" any cases to enter the US, in contrast with the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa when several infected US nationals were treated on US soil.
The US government says it is continuing to build the facility despite the protests and court orders blocking it.
Still planned
Kenyan President William Ruto insists the site would also serve Kenyans and foreign nationals, even if a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the facility would only be treating US citizens.
On Thursday, during his state visit to South Africa, he said his government was doing "the right thing" by allowing the United States to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya. "It would be most unfortunate if on one request by the Americans to set up a facility at their cost, we would refuse, we would look very inhuman," he told a press conference.
He had said on Monday that the facility would be part of a wider national preparedness plan and long-running health partnership with Washington. "We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing," Ruto added.
Kenya's health minister Aden Duale confirmed on Wednesday that the US-funded quarantine centre would proceed anyway. Speaking in parliament, he said the centre would serve both Kenyans and US nationals, dismissing fears it would be "exclusive".
"Quarantine is not only for Americans. Even Kenyans will be isolated at the facility," Duale said, adding that "Laikipia air base is one of the 23 quarantine isolation centres we are building. And we will not stop it."
The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is centred in eastern Congo and several cases have spilled over into neighbouring Uganda.
There have been at least 344 confirmed cases of Ebola in Congo, including 48 deaths, and 116 suspected cases, according to the World Health Organization, and at least 15 confirmed cases in Uganda.
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