NAIROBI — Residents of Nanyuki, a town in central Kenya, took to the streets on Monday to protest a field hospital built by the U.S. military to treat and quarantine Americans exposed to or infected with Ebola.
The makeshift field hospital is on Laikipia Air Base at the edge of Nanyuki, a town known as the gateway to Mount Kenya and a starting point for many wildlife safaris.
The facility, to be staffed by officers from the U.S. Public Health Service, was supposed to begin operating Friday, but a court in Kenya blocked it in response to a lawsuit, pending a fuller hearing in the case Tuesday.
Protesters said that they felt that their lives were endangered.
“If it is not good for America, why is it good for us, why does the U.S. only care about itself?” taxi driver Gibson Maina, 25, told The Washington Post. “The moment we get sick people here, how sure are we that we will be able to contain the disease and that we will be able to survive it?”
Demonstrators set fires and clashed with the police.
“They should stop everything and close this facility because it is a threat to our lives,” said John Kamau, a Nanyuki resident.
Dennis Njogu, 31, a trader in Nanyuki, asked: “What are we getting in return for receiving sick people here, and at what cost? At the cost of putting our lives in danger?”
Njogu added: “It is not worth it. If the Americans want to help, let them help in Congo, not here. Have they heard that there is anyone sick over here?”
Ebola cases have climbed past 1,000, with nearly 200 suspected deaths, a majority in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Kenya has no reported cases of Ebola and has increased surveillance on its borders. The country has also designated a specific gate at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport’s Terminal 1 for those arriving from countries considered to have a high risk of Ebola.
The plan for a facility dedicated to treating Americans exposed to Ebola sparked outrage in Kenya and drew added attention to the Trump administration’s apparent reluctance to allow Americans at risk or infected with the disease to return home for treatment.
Katiba Institute, a constitutional rights advocacy group, filed a lawsuit challenging the plan.
Court filings show that the group asked the court to stop entry of those exposed to or infected with Ebola and to compel the Kenyan Health Ministry to present a contingency plan detailing the nation’s preparedness for Ebola and also to disclose the full terms of the agreement with the United States.
The court ordered a temporary stop to the plan until the case is heard Tuesday.
The U.S. in a statement last week said that it had been made aware of the petition challenging the Ebola isolation facility and that it was in talks with Kenyan authorities to address the concerns.
The post Kenyans protest U.S. plan for Ebola field hospital to treat Americans appeared first on Washington Post.
