World Health Organization’s (WHO) workers mobilise 4.7 tonnes of essential medical supplies and emergency kits to support the affected regions in response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi, Kenya May 18, 2026. World Health Organization/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Kenya’s government is pressing ahead with a contentious plan to house Ebola-exposed Americans at a military installation, even as a court injunction hangs over the project and domestic opposition builds to a fever pitch.
President William Ruto’s administration has said it will build the facility at a US-funded air base 200 kilometres north of Nairobi, even after a court temporarily blocked the move. American personnel involved in the Ebola response landed at Laikipia Air Base on Saturday, as Nairobi’s Health Ministry indicated that additional isolation and treatment centres would also be established at Kenyatta National Hospital and the Kenya National Police Hospital.
High Court Judge Patricia Nyaundi had barred the Kenyan government from “establishing, operationalizing, facilitating, approving or permitting” any Ebola quarantine, isolation, or treatment facility under any arrangement with the United States or a foreign government, with the matter set for hearing on June 2. The injunction came on the very day the facility was to become operational, after civil rights group Katiba Institute sued the state, arguing that the arrangement was negotiated without public participation, parliamentary oversight, or disclosure of its terms.
The proposed arrangement had emerged amid fears that the disease could spread beyond Central Africa, with an outbreak centred on the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo crossing into Uganda and killing more than 200 people. The Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak carries a mortality rate of between 30 and 50 percent, according to the World Health Organisation. Washington’s response has been blunt: Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed that the US “cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter” American territory.
That posture is precisely what has inflamed Kenyan opinion. Critics, including the Katiba Institute, the Law Society of Kenya and the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union, have argued that Kenya is a sovereign nation and not a “geopolitical isolation ward,” and have vowed not to allow the Ruto administration to surrender public safety for foreign aid. The Law Society further argued that Kenya lacks the high-containment infrastructure required to safely manage such a facility, exposing the public to serious health risks, and asked the court to nullify any agreements already signed between the two governments.
The Kenyan doctors’ union issued a 48-hour strike alert when news of the plan broke, warning that the US appeared unwilling to allow Ebola-exposed individuals onto its own soil. One commentator captured the broader public anxiety succinctly, questioning why Kenya would take on an American quarantine mission while domestic health infrastructure was already overstretched.
Kenya’s Health Cabinet Secretary has pushed back against the characterisation of the facility as a foreign Ebola depot, insisting: “There is nowhere where it is said we are bringing Ebola patients to Laikipia.” He maintained that the site is a Kenya Defence Forces installation that will also serve Kenyan citizens, and defended the bilateral relationship by noting that American assistance has accounted for between 25 and 35 percent of Kenya’s health budget over the past six decades.
The Trump administration acknowledged the court action and said it was engaging Kenyan authorities to resolve concerns. “We are aware of the court action filed in Kenya against the Ebola isolation facility. We are in touch with Kenyan authorities and are optimistic we can resolve objections,” a US government statement read. Washington has also committed approximately 1.74 billion Kenyan shillings — around $13.5 million — to support Ebola preparedness efforts in Kenya.
A US Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed that the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps was deploying a team of highly trained officers to Kenya to support the care, monitoring, and quarantine of American citizens departing the DRC, as part of a coordinated interagency effort with the State Department and the Department of War. The team comprises physicians, nurses, laboratory technologists, mental health practitioners and engineers trained for infectious disease emergencies.
As of now, the 50-bed unit at Laikipia sits in limbo, with no patients assigned to it, though US Public Health Service personnel were reportedly already in training at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland ahead of a deployment that may not proceed on its original timeline. For many Kenyans, the standoff distils into a single, uncomfortable question: if Ebola is too dangerous to manage on American soil, why should Kenya bear the burden?
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah