Hundreds protest against planned US Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya

NAIROBI: Hundreds of people took to the streets in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki on Monday to protest moves by the United States to set up an Ebola quarantine facility at a military base there, residents told Reuters, days after the High Court ordered the government to suspend the plan temporarily.

The court ordered the temporary suspension on Friday 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 also confirmed plans to set up the facility, with Health Minister Aden Duale saying in a statement on Saturday that it was part of a wider push to strengthen emergency response systems.

The US officials said the site was expected to have become operational last Friday. A number of military aircraft flew in and out of Nanyuki late last week and over the weekend, in what diplomats and experts said appeared to be part of ongoing US preparations for the quarantine unit despite the court order.

A Reuters witness on Saturday said police and military had increased their presence on roads leading to the air base.

Footage obtained by Reuters on Monday showed a crowd of about 100 people standing about 4 km from the site of the planned facility, blowing whistles and some riding atop a pickup. Smoke could be seen rising from something burning on the road. Local residents put the number of protesters in the hundreds.

NTV Kenya and Citizen Kenya television channels showed footage of people standing by a wall outside the air base, with a tank stationed there and a handful of soldiers on guard.

Patrick Wahome, one of the organisers of the protest, told Reuters that they wanted the health facility to be shut down for good by Tuesday, June 9.

“Nanyuki is a very small town. The military personnel who serve the base… live with us. Our kids go to the same schools and that means if anyone is infected, we are all infected,” he said.

“We are picketing for our lives,” he added.

Cafe owner Patrick Maina said he was forced to shutter his business and described the situation as “very bad.”

“We haven’t opened since morning and it’s likely to be worse tomorrow,” he told Reuters.

A US military C-130 transport plane flew into Nanyuki as recently as Friday afternoon, according to the flight-tracking service Flightradar24.

Two Nanyuki residents also reported seeing military aircraft flying towards the base over the weekend, though Reuters was unable to confirm if they were US aircraft.