JOHANNESBURG: Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday said his government was doing “the right thing” by allowing the US to set up an Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya.
“I can tell you without fear of any contradiction, and I can look at everybody in the eye ... and tell you we are doing the right thing,” Ruto told a press conference during his state visit to South Africa.
“It would be most unfortunate if, on one request by the Americans to set up a facility at their cost, we would refuse; we would look very inhuman,” Ruto added.
The US government is continuing to build the Ebola quarantine facility at an air force base in Kenya, despite protests and Kenyan court orders blocking it, according to flight data and officials.
At least two people were killed earlier this week in protests in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki, home to the base where the 50-bed quarantine unit for Americans who might be exposed to the virus is being built.
A Kenyan court first ordered work on the Ebola facility to be suspended on May 28.
The US Embassy in Nairobi has said it is working with the Kenyan government to resolve any objections.
FASTFACT
The Ebola virus has infected hundreds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The Ebola outbreak has infected hundreds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak, and has spread to Uganda, which has reported 15 cases.
The Health Ministry said residents attacked an Ebola burial team in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province this week, forcing responders to abandon a coffin and raising fears of further transmission.
The assault took place on Monday in Katana, a town controlled by AFC/M23 rebels, some 30 km north of the provincial capital, Bukavu, according to the ministry and the head of a local hospital reached by Reuters.
It targeted a “safe and dignified burial team” — specialized responders trained to handle highly infectious bodies under strict protocols to prevent contagion.
The body was subsequently handled by community members, a high-risk practice that can fuel new chains of infection, according to a situation report published online on Wednesday.
The Health Ministry and the hospital officials did not specify what triggered the attack.
The incident underscores mistrust and resistance that continue to hamper response efforts.
As officials try to control the spread of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, burial teams and health workers have been targeted in recent weeks, including by relatives of victims who have questioned the cause of death.
In a similar incident on Monday in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, where the first cases of the Bundibugyo strain were confirmed, residents assaulted a response team at a cemetery, leaving at least four injured, according to the situation report and a local aid worker.
Despite the setbacks, the ministry noted some progress, highlighting 32 contact cases in Ituri’s Rwampara who had been monitored for 21 days and were determined not to have Ebola.
The ministry also said officials in the city of Goma, North Kivu, were preparing on Wednesday to discharge a recovered patient.
Freddy Kaniki, deputy coordinator for the AFC/M23 rebels, said in a post on X on Wednesday that the patient had been reunited with her family.
