In a high-profile legal ruling that has amplified tensions around a controversial public health project, Kenya’s Health Minister Aden Duale has been convicted of contempt of court for violating a court order to halt construction on a US-funded Ebola quarantine facility in Nanyuki.
Last month, Kenya’s High Court issued an immediate stop-work order for the 50-bed isolation center, which is planned to be built on a local military base. The order paused all construction until the court could hear a legal challenge brought by Kenyan rights organization the Katiba Institute. But in Monday’s ruling, Justice Patricia Nyaundi confirmed that Duale had deliberately ignored the court’s command and permitted construction work to continue uninterrupted. Sentencing for Duale is scheduled to be handed down on Tuesday.
The facility, funded through a US regional Ebola response package, is designed to quarantine US citizens suspected of exposure to Ebola during the ongoing outbreak centered in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The project has sparked widespread public outrage and mass protests across Nanyuki, a town located roughly 140 kilometers north of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Three people have been killed during clashes between demonstrators and police, who were deployed to disperse the crowds. Among the fatalities is 17-year-old high school student Sylvester Muigai Ndung’u, who had hoped to train as a Catholic priest. Witnesses report the teenager was shot in the head during the unrest, though police have stated they are waiting for post-mortem results to confirm the cause of his death, and have not yet responded to accusations that officers used excessive force against unarmed civilians.
The Katiba Institute first filed its legal challenge to halt construction in May, warning in its petition that the facility poses “grave and imminent risks” to Kenyan public health. Following the stop-work order, Kenya’s Ministry of Health attempted to defend its actions by claiming it had not violated the court’s ruling. The ministry argued any ongoing work was being carried out independently by the Kenyan government, in the national interest of protecting Kenyan citizens from potential Ebola exposure. Justice Nyaundi rejected this justification outright in her ruling, stating the government cannot “avoid compliance by recasting or re-characterising the ongoing construction”. She emphasized that a court order “is not an invitation to ingenuity – it is a command to be obeyed”, and confirmed Duale clearly understood the requirement to stop all work at the Nanyuki site, yet chose to allow construction to proceed.
In recent weeks, Kenyan President William Ruto has publicly defended the quarantine facility project. Ruto stated he received an official request from the US government to host the center, and argued that turning down the request would be “inhuman”. He has also urged Kenyan politicians not to politicize the Ebola response, calling for an end to “reckless” rhetoric around the project.
As of Monday, Kenya had not recorded any confirmed cases of Ebola. The ongoing outbreak is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 1,000 confirmed cases have been recorded, with an additional 20 confirmed cases reported in neighboring Uganda, nearly all of which are imported from DR Congo. Notably, the outbreak epicenter in Bunia, DR Congo is more than 780 kilometers from Nanyuki, with Uganda lying between the two locations.
The project has also faced fierce pushback from the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), one of the country’s largest medical professional associations. Union leaders have publicly questioned why Kenya was selected to host a quarantine facility for exposed American workers, amid an outbreak centered hundreds of kilometers away in another country. KMPDU Secretary General Davji Bhimji Atellah stated the union “will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate”.
A spokesperson for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Washington has committed $13.5 million (£10.7 million) to fund Kenyan Ebola preparedness initiatives, including the Nanyuki facility. That funding is part of a broader $112 million US commitment to support regional Ebola outbreak response across Central and East Africa.