Why are Kenyans opposing the opening of an Ebola quarantine center funded by America?

6 days ago

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لماذا يعارض الكينيون افتتاح مركز حجر صحي لمرضى الإيبولا بتمويل من أمريكا؟ — Why are Kenyans opposing the opening of an Ebola quarantine center funded by America?

Written by Ziad Abdel Fattah:

Residents of Nanyuki, a town in central Kenya, have expressed their displeasure with a plan to open a US-funded quarantine center for Ebola patients at a nearby airbase.

Kenyans are angry about a foreign power using their land in a way that carries colonial connotations, and about the risk of Ebola spreading.

This came after the Kenyan government announced that the center, built at Laikipia Air Base, would be used to isolate American and Kenyan citizens arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is battling a deadly Ebola outbreak.

Fears of the danger of the Ebola virus

One citizen, named Atho Halakhe, said that opening an Ebola treatment facility in Kenya was not a good idea because it is a very serious disease.

Kenya's health minister said on Wednesday that the US-funded quarantine center would go ahead, just days after deadly protests erupted over the project.

Kenyan health authorities confirm they have not stopped developing the quarantine center.

Speaking to parliament, Health Minister Aden Duale said the center would serve both Kenyans and American citizens, dismissing concerns that it would be exclusively for Americans, explaining that the quarantine was not just for Americans, but that even Kenyans would be isolated at the facility.

He added: “Laikipia Air Base is one of 23 quarantine and isolation centers that we are building, and we will not stop.”.

As the risk of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda escalated, the Egyptian Agency for Partnership for Development sent a shipment of Aid Humanitarian aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo was received by Ambassador Hesham Elmekwad, the Egyptian Ambassador in Kinshasa, and includes medicines and food supplies.

This comes in support of humanitarian efforts aimed at alleviating the repercussions of the deteriorating situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and responding to the basic needs of those affected, and in confirmation of the deep ties that bind Egypt to its brothers in the African continent, and in embodiment of the values of partnership and solidarity in the face of humanitarian challenges.

Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are facing increasing challenges in containing the Ebola outbreak, with renewed violence against medical response teams and rising numbers of infections and deaths, amid fears that the disease could spread to new areas.