US Ebola center operating in Kenya despite court ban – activists

The alleged move is deeply alarming and unacceptable, according to Katiba Institute, a constitutional watchdog

A controversial US-backed Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya is operating despite a court order suspending activities at the site, activists in the East African nation have said, accusing the authorities of defying the ruling.

The US-based Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse confirmed that seven of its employees who had worked in DR Congo were undergoing a 21-day quarantine in “large military tents” in Kenya. The group said none had shown symptoms but did not disclose their location.

Local media, however, reported that military tents at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, about 200 km north of Nairobi, were intended to house the proposed US quarantine center.

The facility drew attention in May after Washington announced a $13.5 million initiative to strengthen Kenya’s Ebola preparedness amid an outbreak in DR Congo, where 2,344 confirmed cases and at least 930 deaths have been recorded.

The US has said the center would protect public health by quarantining Americans who had been exposed to Ebola abroad. Kenyan President William Ruto has defended the project as part of a broader network of 24 preparedness centers.

Opponents, including the constitutional watchdog Katiba Institute and the Law Society of Kenya, challenged the planned 50-bed center in court, arguing that it could pose a public health risk in a country that has never recorded an Ebola case. Protests against the facility have left at least two people dead.

Last month, the Kenyan High Court found Health Minister Aden Duale in contempt for violating an earlier order halting work at the site. Duale later said he had ordered a complete suspension of all construction and other site activities.

Katiba Institute has described reports that seven foreign nationals exposed to Ebola had been transferred to the contested facility at Laikipia Air Base as “deeply alarming.” It said any such transfer under a bilateral agreement would be unacceptable.

“It represents a flagrant and dangerous defiance of the active High Court conservatory orders that explicitly halted the establishment and operationalization of this secretive site,” the organization wrote on Facebook.

The Law Society of Kenya also told AP on Monday that a “deliberate” violation of the court ruling would amount to “impunity and lawlessness.”