Seven U.S. aid workers are now spending 21 days inside a disputed quarantine facility in Kenya after a newly enforced American travel policy prevented them from returning directly home, putting a controversial bio-isolation center at the heart of an international debate over Ebola containment.
The seven workers are members of Samaritan’s Purse, the Christian humanitarian organization with one of the largest American teams responding to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reuters reported that the group is the first to occupy the U.S.-backed facility, which has already sparked protests, legal challenges, and criticism that Washington is shifting the burden of Ebola exposure to Kenya.
“Samaritan’s Purse has seven American Disaster Assistance Response Team staff members there,” the organization’s president and CEO, Franklin Graham, told Reuters. “None of them have any symptoms, but they are being quarantined by the Kenyan government for 21 days.”
Their quarantine follows a new U.S. policy requiring Americans returning from Ebola-affected regions to spend 21 days in a third country before re-entering the United States.
A U.S. State Department official told Reuters the workers had “voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation.” The official added that Kenyan authorities approved their transfer under the supervision of U.S. Public Health Service clinicians and described the measure as one taken “out of an abundance of caution.”
A source familiar with the situation said the group arrived at the facility on Monday and has been sleeping in tents equipped with army cots. Their work in Congo ranged from construction and logistics to providing direct medical care for Ebola patients at Samaritan’s Purse treatment centers.
The source said one team member is considered a potential high-risk exposure, although no one in the group has developed symptoms. Kenyan authorities have reportedly barred all seven from leaving the compound or traveling elsewhere in the country during the quarantine period.
The quarantine center, built by the United States on an air force base in Nanyuki, central Kenya, was intended to house Americans exposed to Ebola in Congo or Uganda. Before receiving its first occupants, the project had already become one of Kenya’s most controversial foreign-funded health initiatives.
Critics say the facility transfers Ebola-related risks from the United States to Kenya. Last month, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale ordered construction to stop after being found in contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s suspension order linked to an ongoing legal dispute over the project. Despite the ruling, Reuters reported that U.S. officials and satellite imagery indicated construction continued.
Residents, lawyers, and civil society groups have also accused authorities of moving ahead without properly consulting local communities. They have raised concerns about environmental protections, public health safeguards, and the transparency of the project’s approval process. What was presented as a regional disease-control facility has instead become a focal point of political and public opposition.
Despite the controversy, the Trump administration has reinforced its support for the project. It recently requested about $800 million for the Kenyan facility as part of a broader $1.4 billion emergency Ebola response package submitted to Congress. Officials say the funding would establish Kenya as a key regional hub for managing one of the most serious Ebola outbreaks in recent years.
Samaritan’s Purse has also reportedly been promised several million dollars from the administration to support its Ebola response and continues to work alongside the World Health Organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah