"We are not a colony": Kenya erupts against the Ebola quarantine center for confining North Americans outside the United States

Barcelona"Kenya is not a colony of the United States!", "Our country is not a dump!", "We reject Ebola". These cries have been heard in various demonstrations that in recent days have been repeated in the Kenyan city of Nanyuki, the center of a controversy unleashed by the government of Donald Trump. The United States has decided to locate a field hospital here to isolate American citizens who have been exposed to the Ebola outbreak that continues ravaging the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo,, with the aim of keeping them away from North American territory.

The intention is to set up 50 beds at the Laikipia air base, a few kilometers from Nanyuki, to send Americans there who may have potentially been in contact with the virus, but who have not developed symptoms. The US government has said that symptomatic individuals will be transferred to another location, without providing further details. But this project, blessed by the Kenyan government, has raised concern and anger among the city's inhabitants, who warn of the risk of importing the virus into the country, which has never registered an Ebola case.

"The proposal to establish the Ebola quarantine hospital in Laikipia goes against the principle of Madaraka [self-government]... This is neocolonialism," stated the governor of Laikipia, Mutula Kilonzo Junior, in a speech at last Tuesday's demonstration, according to French radio RFI.

That day, protests, in which hundreds of people participated, led to a confrontation with the police that resulted in at least twenty detainees and one death. Days earlier, in another demonstration in the city, two more demonstrators died. The police have repressed the demonstrators with pepper spray, water cannons, and even live fire, according to witnesses and organizations. "Hooded police fired live bullets and arbitrarily arrested 19 protesters," the Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-profit organization, stated in a statement on X on Tuesday night. Several witnesses explained that the man died from a gunshot to the head.

The protesters have directed their discontent against the United States, but also against the president of Kenya, William Ruto, and have called for his resignation. But the Kenyan leader has defended the project and the association with Washington: "I can tell you without fear of contradiction (...) that we are doing the right thing," he said at a press conference during a state visit to South Africa. "It would be very unfortunate if, in response to a request from the US to establish a facility at their expense, we refused; we would seem very inhumane," he argued.

His government already received criticism at the end of last year, when it signed a bilateral agreement on health matters with Washington, which gives Americans access to Kenyan health data in exchange for funding. The Trump administration has promoted this type of agreement after dismantling the USAID development aid agency. Among the protesters, the criticism of what they consider hypocrisy on the part of the White House is also repeated. "When Trump came to power, he cut USAID funding, and now he expects us to fight Ebola?" a participant in Tuesday's protest, Kamore Warukinyu, told Le Monde. In previous Ebola outbreaks, the US had repatriated its citizens for treatment in their country. Since the outbreak was declared in Congo, several US citizens have been exposed to the virus. A doctor contracted the disease and was transferred, with his family (wife and four children) to Germany. "We cannot and will not allow any Ebola case to enter the US," said Secretary of State Marco Rubio on May 28 at a government meeting. Washington has pledged $13.5 million to Kenya for Ebola preparedness.

For now, the outbreak has only been detected in Congo, with isolated cases in Uganda. The WHO has declared the epidemic —caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which has neither a vaccine nor a treatment— as a public health emergency of international concern. According to the latest report, published this Saturday, 689 cases of Ebola have been confirmed so far in the Democratic Republic of Congo, of which 139 have died. In Uganda, the WHO records two deaths and 19 confirmed cases.

Project blocked by the justice system

The healthcare staff of the African country has also spoken out against the center. The Kenya Medical, Pharmaceutical and Dental Practitioners Union said in a statement last week that it would not "stand idly by and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony." "If it's too dangerous for the United States, it's too dangerous for Kenya," it argued.

Furthermore, the citizens of Nanyuki also warn that the center will scare away tourists, as the city is the base for ascending Mount Kenya, the highest mountain in the country and the second highest in Africa.

Social opposition has meant that, for the moment, the project is blocked. A court temporarily suspended the plan on May 28 after a complaint from two organizations that have requested to stop the construction of the field hospital, alleging the risks of virus exposure and the absence of public information. They also pointed out that Kenya's fragile healthcare system has a limited capacity to deal with Ebola. Last Tuesday, the High Court of Kenya extended the blockade for three more weeks and ordered the government to make its agreement with the USA public.

But Washington has not stopped. According to the Reuters agency, U.S. military planes have continued to arrive at the base, bringing technical equipment and personnel. According to a report in the New York Times this week, the army continues to work on the construction of the center and about 300 American soldiers from Djibouti, Europe, and the United States are helping to erect large tents and install specialized medical equipment to treat Ebola patients. "They have everything and everyone, except the patients," a source summarized to the British agency.