NAIROBI, July 22– Kenyan activists and legal groups expressed concerns on Wednesday after seven U.S. aid workers were placed under a mandatory 21-day Ebola quarantine at a U.S.-funded isolation unit at Laikipia Air Base in Laikipia County, Kenya.
The facility was established following a U.S. policy requiring citizens exposed to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to quarantine in a third country before returning to the United States.
This move ran contrary to an earlier Kenyan High Court order suspending the establishment of the U.S.-backed Ebola isolation facility in the country.
Katiba Institute, a Kenyan civil society organization, previously filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Kenyan government from permitting or establishing any foreign-linked Ebola treatment or quarantine facilities in Kenya.
Joshua Malidzo Nyawa, a lawyer representing the Katiba Institute, said that the organization was concerned that court orders halting foreign disease facilities had been ignored.
“If reports of a transfer of exposed individuals under a bilateral agreement are true, this is an absolute outrage. It represents a flagrant and dangerous defiance of the active High Court conservatory orders that explicitly halted the establishment and operationalization of this secretive site,” Nyawa said.
The seven aid workers, the first individuals known to be quarantined at the facility, arrived on July 13. Kenyan authorities have not publicly confirmed or denied their presence at the site.
Pending the full hearing and determination of the case, the Kenyan High Court injunction had explicitly barred the Kenyan government from receiving, transferring, or assisting any individuals infected with or exposed to the Ebola virus from entering the country under the bilateral agreement.
The Kenyan High Court is scheduled to hear a petition on Thursday challenging the establishment of the Ebola isolation and quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base.
The dispute has drawn widespread attention following a U.S. announcement of 13.5 million U.S. dollars to support Kenya’s Ebola preparedness program.(Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
