Kenya’s health minister, Aden Duale, told a court he has ordered an immediate halt to construction of a US-run Ebola quarantine facility after being held in contempt for defying an earlier injunction. The center, planned at Laikipia Air Base near Nanyuki with roughly 50 isolation beds, was meant to house Americans evacuated from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rights groups challenged the facility in court, arguing it was developed without sufficient public consultation. Three people have died in protests against the facility, with many Kenyans arguing it poses an unnecessary risk in a country that has never recorded an Ebola case. While Duale defended the project as scientifically safe, critics question its colonial undertones, especially since the US has pledged not to allow anyone with the virus onto its soil, even its own citizens.
The Guardian
