At least one person was shot as Kenyan police fought violent running battles with protesters Tuesday over an Ebola quarantine centre being built for US citizens in a tourist town.
The centre at Laikipia Air Base in the town of Nanyuki, under the shadow of Mount Kenya, is set to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is battling a major Ebola outbreak.
Kenya has never recorded a case of Ebola and many oppose the idea of bringing potential carriers of the highly contagious disease into the country.
There were running battles around Nanyuki as protesters lit fires and threw stones at police, who responded with teargas and water cannons, AFP journalists saw.
Gunshots were heard and AFP saw one man lying motionless after being shot in the head. The Red Cross said another person was injured by a teargas cannister.
Dozens were arrested, including by armed police in plainclothes, AFP saw.
“Laikipia isn’t a dumping site… I’m not happy about the US decision that they’re going to build a quarantaine in our country,” said protester Priscilla Waimani, 47, wrapped in a Kenyan flag.
The centre is due to have 50 isolation beds and be managed by US staff and was nearing completion late last week.
Work has continued despite a temporary pause order from Kenya’s High Court and opposition from local politicians in Laikipia.
Earlier protests on June 1 saw two people killed, a rights group said, though the circumstances of the deaths remain unclear.
President William Ruto’s government has vowed to press ahead with the facility, saying it owes Washington for years of aid support.
The United States has also pledged $13.5 million to Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts.
“The American people and government have been partners with us on matters of health for close to 25-30 years,” Ruto said last week.
“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.”
Kenya’s health minister has claimed the facility will be for Kenyans as well as Americans, though that has not been the message from Washington.
But protesters insist it must deal with problems on their own soil.
“We are saying the Americans (are) going to take their Ebola and go back to their country,” Mwangi Wangai, 30, told AFP at the demonstration, dressed in PPE.
– Health deal –
News of the quarantine centre has already affected tourism to Kenya, even in the capital Nairobi some 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.
Eva Mwangi, head of sales for the Tribe group of luxury hotels in Nairobi, said about 10 percent of corporate bookings had cancelled since news of the quarantine centre emerged.
The government “needs to reiterate the measures they are taking to ensure safety. If that’s done pro-actively, it can only assist,” she said.
Construction of the facility follows a controversial health deal between the US and Kenya last year, in which the east African country agreed to hand over reams of health data in exchange for billions of dollars in aid.
The World Health Organization has declared an international health emergency over the outbreak in the DRC, which has seen 550 confirmed infections, including 101 deaths.
Abdirahman Mahamud, WHO director of Health Emergency Alert and Response Operations, said that the facility was a “local bilateral collaboration” between the US and Kenya and said dialogue was vital.
“You cannot have a successful preparedness or response unless you have the community with you on your side,” he told reporters in the city of Bunia, in northeastern DRC.
Despite fears of spread to neighbouring countries, only Uganda has recorded cases. It has confirmed 19 so far, almost all Congolese nationals who crossed the border.
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