Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Tuesday at hundreds of protesters demonstrating against \u200ca\u00a0quarantine centre,\u00a0for Americans exposed to Ebola that the U.S. has raced to build despite Kenyan court orders barring further work.<\/p>\n
The proposed 50-bed unit at the Laikipia Air Base has angered many Kenyans, who accuse the U.S. of offloading the risk of caring for those exposed to the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.<\/p>\n
Two people were killed \u200bin\u00a0protests last week\u00a0in the central town of Nanyuki, where frustration has grown as Kenyan and U.S. authorities publicly reaffirm their commitment to the \u200bplan.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who had gathered in different parts of the town, \u2060which is next to the air force base. Some waved Kenyan flags and one carried a white cross emblazoned with the phrase “Reject Ebola” in red.<\/p>\n
Officers detained \u200bat least 10 protesters, a Reuters witness said.<\/p>\n
Protester Priscilla Imani said the area’s association with the quarantine facility was scaring away tourists who typically come to \u200bclimb Mount Kenya or see rhinoceroses at a nearby nature conservancy.<\/p>\n
“My message is this: Laikipia is not a dumping site and our voices must be heard,” she told Reuters.<\/p>\n
U.S. SAYS IT WON’T ALLOW ENTRY OF EBOLA CASES<\/strong><\/p>\n Several U.S. citizens have been exposed to Ebola in eastern Congo and Uganda, where there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 100 confirmed \u200bdeaths from the outbreak declared last month.<\/p>\n Six, including one who tested positive for the disease, were moved to a medical facility in Germany last month, while \u200banother was taken to the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump’s administration\u00a0has said it “cannot and will not allow” any Ebola cases to enter the U.S.<\/p>\n The Nanyuki facility is designated for \u200cAmericans who \u2060have been exposed to the virus but are still asymptomatic. Patients with symptoms would be sent to other countries, U.S. officials have said.<\/p>\n A High Court judge has twice issued orders barring Kenya’s government from taking steps to build or begin operations at the site. Her latest order gave the government one week to disclose all agreements and operational protocols related to the facility.<\/p>\n Joshua Malidzo, a lawyer challenging the quarantine plan on behalf of the Katiba Institute legal advocacy group, said the \u200bcourt’s deadline expired on Monday without \u200bthe government complying.<\/p>\n A government spokesperson did \u2060not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n KENYANS DIRECT ANGER AT PRESIDENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Many protesters directed their anger at President William Ruto, with some chanting “Ruto must go!” The president said last week that his administration was doing “the right thing” by establishing the centre.<\/p>\n “Why \u200bwould a government set up a facility to control a disease we don\u2019t have when they can\u2019t deal with \u200bthe ones ailing \u2060us?\u201d Bethwel Onyango, 24, told Reuters.<\/p>\n U.S. military planes have continued to ferry in staff and equipment after the court issued its orders, according to U.S. and diplomatic sources and flight tracking data, with several aircraft expected to land this week.<\/p>\n Satellite imagery\u00a0shows a build-up of white tents since late May on a roughly 11-acre \u2060plot on the \u200bair base.<\/p>\n The United States has said it is aware of the court challenge and was “working \u200bwith the Kenyan government to resolve any objections”.<\/p>\n Shortly after the Kenyan government agreed to the quarantine plan, the U.S. said it would provide $13.5 million for Kenya’s Ebola preparedness effort.<\/p>\n Kenyan officials have said the \u200bfacility would also serve Kenyans and foreign nationals, but U.S. officials have not confirmed this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Tuesday at hundreds of protesters demonstrating against \u200ca\u00a0quarantine centre,\u00a0for Americans exposed to Ebola that the U.S. has raced to build despite Kenyan court orders barring further work. The proposed 50-bed unit at the Laikipia Air Base has angered many Kenyans, who accuse the U.S. of offloading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21052,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,2854],"tags":[75,111,132],"class_list":["post-21083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-health","tag-ebola","tag-kenya","tag-uganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21084,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21083\/revisions\/21084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}