A court in Kenya on Friday suspended a U.S. plan to establish a quarantine facility for Americans exposed to a rare type of Ebola virus spreading in northeastern Congo, after medical workers and activists pushed back against the arrangement. The High Court in Nairobi put a stop to any deal on the Ebola facility until petitions against it are heard on Tuesday, interrupting a plan that would have sent exposed Americans to Kenya instead of flying them home.
Who Gets the Risk
A U.S. administration official said on Wednesday that the U.S. was planning to send Americans who are exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them home. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to share the administration’s plans. It was unclear where in Kenya the new facility would be built or whether the Kenyan government signed off on the plan. That uncertainty sat alongside a very clear hierarchy: the people expected to absorb the danger were not the Americans the plan was designed for, but the Kenyan public.
The Kenyan government said it was in discussions with the U.S. on support for Ebola preparedness, but declined to address whether the country would establish a treatment facility for Americans. The U.S. government intends to commit $13.5 million toward Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. The money, presented as preparedness support, is tied to a plan that critics say would place serious public health risks on Kenya.
Pushback From Below
The High Court in Nairobi on Friday acted after a backlash by medical workers and activists. An organization formed to defend Kenya’s Constitution, Katiba Institute, and the Kenya Law Society separately challenged any presence of Ebola-related facilities. The Kenya Law Society asked the court to nullify any agreements signed between the U.S. and Kenya on the project, citing public health risks and a lack of public participation.
The society also said that Kenya lacks “the high-containment infrastructure required to safely manage such a facility, exposing the public to serious health risks.” That warning cut through the polished language of preparedness and exposed the basic arrangement: a facility for foreign nationals, backed by foreign money, in a place the challengers say does not have the infrastructure to safely handle it.
A Kenyan doctors’ union on Thursday issued a 48-hour strike notice should the country proceed with the deal. It said the U.S. was clear that they would not allow Ebola on their soil and that Kenya should not become a “dumping ground.” The union’s chairperson, Davji Atellah, said in a statement, “As the vanguard of Kenya’s healthcare system, we are utterly disgusted by the government’s apparent willingness to trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid.”
What Ordinary People Said
Ordinary Kenyans have also been angered by the plan. Laborer Cedric Akweyu told The Associated Press, “Why do they want to get infected people and bring them to Kenya? Kenya is not a dumping area for such sick people.” Student Wycliff Otieno said, “It is like the government has been given a lot of money by the U.S. So, it is like they are selling us.” Those reactions captured the basic grievance from below: decisions made far above ordinary people’s heads, with ordinary people left to live with the consequences.
In northeastern Congo, health workers with scant supplies have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine. The Congolese government has confirmed more than 1,000 suspected cases, with at least 220 deaths, since it declared an outbreak on May 15. But the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks and the WHO suspects it is much larger than what has been reported. The virus also has reached neighboring Uganda, which has confirmed seven cases and one death.
The contrast is hard to miss: health workers in Congo are trying to contain an outbreak with scant supplies, while officials and institutions debate where to park the risk. In Kenya, the court’s suspension means the deal cannot move forward until the petitions are heard on Tuesday, but the underlying machinery of state-to-state bargaining remains intact for now.