A Kenyan court has extended a block on a proposed US Ebola quarantine facility for another three weeks, after protests against the plan left two people dead in central Kenya.
The High Court on Tuesday also ordered the Kenyan government to disclose within seven days all agreements and operational protocols linked to the planned facility, which Washington wants to set up at an air force base in Nanyuki.
The proposed 50-bed unit would be used to quarantine Americans exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Uganda but who have not developed symptoms. The plan has angered many Kenyans, who accuse the United States of shifting the health risks of the outbreak onto Kenya.
Judge Patricia Nyaundi barred the Kenyan government from taking any steps to build or begin operating the facility before the case is resolved. The next hearing was scheduled for June 23.
The court had already temporarily suspended the plan last week following a lawsuit filed by a legal advocacy group. Despite that order, US military aircraft have continued bringing staff and equipment into Kenya in recent days, according to a US official and diplomatic sources cited by Reuters.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hundreds of people protested in Nanyuki on Monday against the proposed facility. Protest organiser Patrick Wahome said two people were killed by gunshot wounds after police opened fire. A security source also confirmed that two people had died, but did not specify the cause of death.
Police spokesperson Michael Muchiri said he was not aware of the deaths.
Kenyan President William Ruto defended the agreement on Monday, saying the facility was part of a wider national preparedness plan and a long-standing health partnership with Washington.
“We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing,” Ruto said.
Ruto said the facility would serve both Kenyans and foreign nationals, although US officials have not confirmed that.
Kenyan courts are widely seen as independent by regional standards, though activists have frequently accused the government of ignoring or bypassing court orders.
The Ebola outbreak involves the rare Bundibugyo strain and is centred in eastern Congo, with several cases also reported in neighbouring Uganda.
More than 900 suspected cases and more than 220 suspected deaths have been reported. Experts warn the outbreak may be significantly larger than official figures suggest, after spreading undetected for weeks before it was declared on May 15.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has said it “cannot and will not allow” Ebola cases to enter the United States, unlike during the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, when infected US nationals were treated on American soil.
A US citizen who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Congo as a medical missionary was transferred to Germany last month, along with five others who had been exposed. A seventh person was taken to the Czech Republic.
The planned Nanyuki facility would be staffed by members of the US Public Health Service, a uniformed branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.
US officials have said the site would only receive Americans who had been exposed to the virus but remained asymptomatic. Anyone who developed symptoms would be sent to other countries for treatment.