Deadly protest in Kenya against Ebola quarantine centre

Two people died during a protest against a planned US Ebola quarantine facility in central Kenya, a protest organizer and security source said, while President William Ruto rejected criticism that it would endanger Kenyans.

Both died of gunshot wounds on Monday after police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators in the town of Nanyuki, where the air base intended to house the facility is located, protest organizer Patrick Wahome said.

The security source did not specify how the duo died.

Police spokesman Michael Muchiri said he was unaware of the deaths.

A plan to set up a 50-bed unit to house Americans exposed to the virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda has angered many Kenyans, who accused the United States of avoiding the public health risk of caring for the sick.

A Kenyan court temporarily suspended the plan in response to a lawsuit filed by a legal advocacy group.

Another hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

Despite the order, US military aircraft continued to fly with personnel and equipment in recent days, according to a US official and diplomatic sources.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Addressing the issue for the first time late on Monday, Ruto said the facility was part of a broader national preparedness plan and a long-standing health partnership with Washington.

“The facility at Laikipia Air Base is no different from any other facility we have in Kenya,” he told reporters in northern Kenya.

He did not mention the court decision.

The outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola is concentrated in eastern Congo, and a few cases have spread to neighboring Uganda.

There are more than 900 suspected cases, including more than 220 suspected deaths due to the disease.

Experts say the outbreak announced on May 15 is likely significantly larger and more advanced than official figures suggest after circulating unnoticed for weeks.

President Donald Trump’s administration has said it “cannot and will not allow” any cases to enter the United States, unlike when many U.S. citizens infected in the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa were treated on U.S. soil.

A U.S. citizen who contracted Ebola while treating patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a medical missionary was taken to Germany for treatment in May, along with five others infected with the disease.

A seventh person was taken to the Czech Republic.

The facility in Nanyuki will be staffed by members of the U.S. Public Health Service, a uniformed branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

It is intended to admit Americans who have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic.

U.S. officials said patients who developed symptoms would be sent to other countries for care.

Ruto said on Monday that he approved the facility after Trump asked Kenya to support it, citing decades of health cooperation with Washington.

The Kenyan government has pushed for the facility to accept patients of all nationalities, not just U.S. citizens.

Ruto said he would also serve Kenyans and foreign nationals, although US officials have not confirmed this.