With no recorded cases of Ebola, many Kenyans are struggling to understand why their government is allowing the United States to build an Ebola facility in their country to treat US citizens. Despite protests and criticism, the Kenyan government has vowed to press on.
Issued on: 06/06/2026 - 14:50
4 min Reading time
The centre at Nanyuki, near the Laikipia military base 190km north of Nairobi, is set to quarantine Americans arriving from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, which is battling a major Ebola outbreak. The facility will have 50 isolation beds and be managed by US staff. A US diplomatic source said it was nearing completion and currently had no patients. Hundreds of Kenyans have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest against the plan, arguing that the country should not be asked to host people exposed to a disease it has never recorded. Public anger "Kenya is not an American colony!" protesters chanted on Tuesday as they carried an Ebola coffin to the health ministry. "If Ebola is too dangerous for Americans, it's also too dangerous for us," protesters from Nanyuki told RFI. Two people were killed in central Kenya after police opened fire on Tuesday, Patrick Wahome, one of the organisers of the march, said. A security source also said two people had died but did not specify the cause of death. There is also anger over what critics see as the neo-colonial nature of the project, with Washington refusing to allow Ebola patients into its own territory while sending them to Kenya.
