Kenya's High Court Orders Disclosure on US-Linked Ebola Quarantine Facility Amid Protests

Kenya’s High Court has ordered the government to disclose details of a proposed United States-linked Ebola quarantine facility, a day after hundreds of people took to the streets in the central town of Nanyuki to protest about the planned site.

The Reuters news agency said two people died from gunshot wounds during Monday’s unrest, citing protest organiser Patrick Wahome and a security source.

The court extended conservatory orders stopping the establishment of any Ebola quarantine, isolation or treatment facility in Kenya and barred the admission of individuals exposed to the virus.

It also ordered the cabinet secretary for health to make public the agreement details, health and biosafety assessments, regulatory approvals and operational protocols.

On Friday, the High Court had ordered the government to suspend the plan temporarily, after a lawsuit was brought arguing that the site could endanger public health.

Senior US officials said the 50-bed unit at an air force base in Laikipia County would serve Americans who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic.

Kenya’s government has pledged to proceed with plans to set up the facility, with Health Minister Aden Duale saying in a statement on Saturday that it was part of a broader effort to strengthen emergency response systems.

But critics of the plan say Kenya’s health infrastructure is too fragile to cope with the potential dangers.

Al Jazeera’s Catherine Wambua-Soi, reporting from Nairobi, said that at the hearing on Tuesday, the main petitioner, rights group the Katiba Institute, insisted the plan posed grave risks to health.

“The main petitioner, the Katiba Institute, who has taken this matter to court is blocking the facility, saying that the deal between the US and Kenya is not transparent at all,” she said, adding that the Law Society of Kenya and the main doctors’ union had also opposed the plan in the court hearing. “They are all saying no to that facility. So the judge said the government must present all the relevant paperwork for the deal.”

Ruto defends facility

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda are battling the rare Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, in an outbreak that has so far killed 48 people and been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO.

The outbreak is outpacing the global response, which got off to a late start.

Kenyan President William Ruto defended the facility, saying it was part of a wider national preparedness plan and a long-running health partnership with Washington.

Speaking for the first time about the facility, Ruto said it was not unusual and was similar to others already established in Kenya.

“The facility that is at Laikipia Air Base is not a facility different from all the other facilities that we have across Kenya,” Ruto told reporters in northern Kenya late on Monday, urging Kenyans not to doubt the government’s preparedness.

Ruto said he approved the facility after US President Donald Trump asked Kenya to support it, citing decades of cooperation with Washington on health programmes including HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19.

The president said Kenya had prepared isolation, surveillance and treatment facilities in 23 counties, adding the facility would serve Kenyans as well as foreign partners, including Americans, if needed.