In brief
Kenyan Health Minister Aden Duale has been convicted of contempt of court after persisting with construction of a US‑funded Ebola quarantine centre in Nanyuki despite a High Court stop order. The 50‑bed facility, aimed at US citizens at risk of Ebola, was built in defiance of a court ruling that the site must be halted until a rights‑group case could be heard. Protests in the town led to the deaths of three demonstrators, including a 17‑year‑old schoolboy. President William Ruto defended the project, while a Kenyan medical union warned that the country was being used as a containment colony for a virus it did not create.
Kenya’s health minister Aden Duale was convicted of contempt of court for disregarding a High Court order that halted the construction of a 50‑bed isolation facility in Nanyuki.
The planned quarantine centre is for US citizens who may have been exposed to Ebola during the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was built despite the court ruling that the construction must stop until a rights‑group case is heard.
Weeks before the ruling a wave of angry protests erupted in Nanyuki, resulting in police arrests and the deaths of three demonstrators, including a 17‑year‑old schoolboy, Sylvester Muigai Ndung’u.
Kenya has yet to record any Ebola cases while the outbreak in Congo has surpassed a thousand confirmed cases and Uganda has had twenty, most imported from the Congo.
President William Ruto defended the project and urged the country not to politicise a serious disease. He also called on politicians to avoid reckless talk about the outbreak.
The Kenyan Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union accused the country of acting as a containment colony for a virus that was not made in Kenya.
The United States pledged $13.5 million for Kenya’s Ebola preparedness as part of a $112 million regional assistance package.
