Kenyan Court Temporarily Suspends Trump Administration Plan for U.S. Ebola Quarantine Facility

A Kenyan court temporarily suspended a Trump administration plan to establish a makeshift field hospital in Kenya to quarantine and treat Americans exposed to or infected with Ebola, with the ruling issued on the day U.S. officials said the facility would begin operating.

The plan described by U.S. officials included a 50-bed isolation centre and was intended for Americans who would be exposed to Ebola in regions affected by the outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

ABC News

Judge Patricia Nyaundi said anyone who has been exposed to or infected by Ebola would not be allowed into the country, and the next hearing was scheduled for June 2.

ABC News reported that the White House confirmed the U.S. was planning a health facility in Kenya to receive Americans exposed to the Ebola virus in DRC regions, and that Kenya’s Katiba Institute challenged the plan as an "imminent threat to life."

The dispute unfolded as the World Health Organization said Friday there were 906 suspected cases and 223 suspected deaths in the DRC, while ABC News also cited CDC incident manager Dr. Satish Pillai saying 236 CDC staffers were working on the Ebola response domestically and abroad.

Katiba Institute executive director Nora Mbagathi told ABC News the challenge was not about opposing Ebola preparedness or international cooperation, but about transparency and following Kenya’s constitutional procedures.

Mbagathi said the institute had not seen impact assessments, safeguarding plans or evidence of parliamentary involvement, and she argued, "If this is really in the best interest of Kenyans, then it should go ahead."

ABC News

ABC News also reported that the next hearing for the case was scheduled for June 2, and that there were no new known high-risk exposures of Americans.

In a separate account, the BBC said the Katiba Institute warned the arrangement posed "grave and imminent risks" to public health, and it reported that a High Court judge barred the operation of any Ebola facility in Kenya by any foreign government until the case was heard.

The BBC further quoted a U.S. official saying, "We're going to be ready to take care of our citizens as needed," as it described the 50-bed isolation centre being staffed by US medics and due to begin operations on Friday.

The court’s interim restraint in Nairobi specifically barred government agencies and officials from "establishing, operationalising, facilitating, approving or permitting" any Ebola-related quarantine, isolation or treatment centre tied to arrangements with the US or any foreign government in Kenya.

The BBC reported that Kenya’s largest doctors’ union accused the government of engaging in "backdoor negotiations" and demanded the immediate release of any bilateral agreements underpinning the plan.

NBC News said Kenya’s government provided written approval for the plan on Thursday but had not directly addressed it in public comments, while it also reported that the next hearing would take place on June 2.

NBC News added that the U.S. State Department said it would commit $13.5 million toward Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts, and it described the planned 50-bed unit at an air force base in central Kenya serving Americans who were exposed but still asymptomatic.

As the legal fight continued, CNN reported that the plan came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed earlier this week that the U.S. "cannot and will not allow" any cases of Ebola to enter the United States, and it said the facility was scheduled to be located on the Laikipia Airbase, about 125 miles north of Nairobi.