Way back in 2014 amidst the worst Ebola virus outbreak in human history, Donald Trump blasted then-president Barack Obama for evacuating infected US citizens, rather than leaving them in Africa. It seemed like a ridiculous charge: Trump, then only a hardheaded real estate mogul and reality TV star, could never imagine the calculations being made in the Oval Office as Ebola claimed thousands of lives.
Now, however, Trump is in that office, and with Ebola once again surging in West Africa, he’s putting his money where his mouth is — and forcing the people of Kenya to pay the price.
In the small Kenyan town of Nanyuki, at least one person is dead after state police opened fire on a crowd of protestors rallying against a quarantine center being erected by the Trump administration exclusively for US citizens, Al Jazeera reported. As footage shared by the non-government organization Vocal Africa shows, Kenyan police also used tear gas and armored personnel carriers armed with water canons to disperse the angry crowd.
Tensions flared in Nanyuki as police opened fire during ongoing protests against a proposed U.S. Ebola quarantine facility, leaving one demonstrator dead. pic.twitter.com/9HABaXP1dY
— VOCAL Africa (@VOCALAfrica_) June 9, 2026
The plan to construct the mysterious quarantine center in Nanyuki was first revealed by US officials in May. Crucially, it wasn’t revealed to the Kenyans who would be living next to it, but to the US media by secretary of state Marco Rubio. That outraged Kenyans, whose country has not yet faced any confirmed cases of Ebola, but whose government has largely bent to the will of US leaders in exchange for military equipment and police funding — even as Trump’s cuts to Kenyan health programs result in what analysts have called a man-made hunger crisis.
Despite a court-order in Kenya to halt construction, US military planes continue to transport personnel and equipment to the facility, Al Jazeera reported. Kenya’s president William Ruto, meanwhile, has affirmed that work has been allowed to continue, saying that the facility is in everybody’s best interest.
“I can tell you without fear of any contradiction, and I can look at everybody in the eye… and tell you we are doing the right thing,” Ruto said in a press conference covered by Reuters. “It would be most unfortunate if on one request by the Americans to set up a facility at their cost, we would refuse, we would look very inhuman.”
On Tuesday, Al Jazeera‘s Malcolm Webb reported that the demonstrations continued even after police began using crowd control tactics.
“It escalated significantly in the afternoon… This has gone on for hours and all the demonstrators say that they don’t believe the government’s claim that this Ebola facility will bring them any benefit; they’re deeply skeptical,” Webb explained. “They say they don’t want this facility in their town.”
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