Kenya Blocks U.S. Plan for an Ebola Facility for Americans

A general view shows the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi, Kenya on May 20, 2026. —Monicah Mwangi—ReutersThe U.S. government’s plan for managing Americans who might have been exposed to the Ebola virus in the current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda is to triage them in a newly built facility in Kenya. But a Kenyan high court blocked the planned opening of the facility, which was scheduled for May 29. The court order was in response to a petition filed by a Kenyan civil society group questioning the constitutionality of the facility, according to the New York Times. Local health groups there have also opposed the facility, since it would not provide care to Kenyans but focus only on American citizens.In a press briefing on May 28—before the opening of the facility was blocked—senior White House officials said the U.S. government had been working with Kenyan officials to establish the facility, located at Laikipia air base. The camp, as the officials called it, was designed to be a quarantine facility for Americans who might have been exposed to Ebola, where they would be monitored for symptoms. If they tested positive for Ebola or developed symptoms, the facility was also set to soon have biocontainment facilities.The quarantine camp contains 50 beds, and the government is in the process of delivering three isolation units that can each house four patients, and two containment units that can hold two patients each. The isolation and biocontainment units are meant to temporarily…

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