A satellite image shows tents erected at the U.S.-backed Ebola quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base in Laikipia County, Kenya June 22, 2026. Pleiades © CNES 2026, Distribution Airbus DS/Handout Image @ REUTERS
A Kenyan judge on Tuesday spared Health Minister Aden Duale jail time after finding him guilty of contempt of court, but not before extracting a pledge that halted construction on a controversial U.S.-backed Ebola quarantine facility that has left blood on the streets of central Kenya.
Justice Patricia Nyaundi Mande ruled that Duale had commissioned work at the site despite multiple suspension orders issued in late May and early June. In her sentencing, she warned the minister against further disobedience but discharged him without punishment. Minutes later, Duale announced he had ordered an immediate halt to all construction.
The planned 50-bed tented facility at Laikipia Air Base, near the central town of Nanyuki, was intended to receive U.S. nationals exposed to the Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had made Washington’s position plain during a Cabinet meeting, declaring: “We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola to enter the United States.”
That posture enraged many Kenyans, who saw it as the United States exporting a health hazard to a country with no recorded infections. The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union captured the mood bluntly, saying it would not “watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony” and adding: “If it is too dangerous for America, it is too dangerous for Kenya.”
Two people were killed during protests at the air base on June 2, and a third protester died on June 9 when demonstrations turned violent. The case before the court was brought by the Law Society of Kenya and the Katiba Institute, a constitutional watchdog, who argued that Kenya’s healthcare system was already overstretched.
Despite the court orders, construction had continued. Satellite imagery from June 22 showed a build-up of tents, an expansion of paved areas, and new structures that appeared to be shipping containers compared with images reviewed earlier in the month. Flight-tracking data and U.S. and diplomatic sources confirmed that aircraft carrying medical equipment and specialist staff had continued arriving at the base. A U.S. official acknowledged last week that supply flights were still landing and that personnel were being trained on site.
The DRC outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, raising fears it could become one of the worst Ebola outbreaks on record, fears compounded by delays in detection and deep cuts to U.S. foreign aid under the Trump administration. The outbreak has recorded over 1,000 cases across the DRC and neighbouring Uganda.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah