NAIROBI. At least four people have been killed and more than 30 injured in Nairobi after protests against a United States-run Ebola quarantine centre turned violent. The demonstrations, which began peacefully on Tuesday, escalated when police fired live rounds into a crowd of several thousand outside the US Embassy. Witnesses said the clashes continued into the night, with tear gas and sporadic gunfire echoing through the city centre.
The quarantine facility, established earlier this month in the suburb of Karen, is part of a wider US Africa Command initiative to monitor travellers for Ebola symptoms during the current outbreak in neighbouring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But local residents and political leaders have accused the US of conducting secret medical experiments, a claim Washington has strongly denied.
Protests were triggered after a leaked internal memo from the Kenyan Ministry of Health questioned the transparency of the US operation. The memo, obtained by the Kenyan newspaper The Star, noted that the centre’s staff were predominantly American and that local health authorities had been given limited access. President William Ruto’s government has since distanced itself from the memo, calling it “unauthorised and unverified”.
Kenya has recorded no cases of Ebola in the current outbreak, which has killed more than 1,200 people in the region. The country’s Health Ministry has been running its own screening measures at airports and border crossings. Yet the US centre, which is guarded by armed private security contractors, has become a symbol of what protestors call American overreach.
“They are not here to help us. They are here to experiment on us,” said Grace Auma, a teacher and protest organiser, speaking to Reuters from a hospital where she was treated for tear gas inhalation. The US Embassy in Nairobi issued a statement expressing “deep regret” over the deaths and calling for calm. “The Karen facility is an ordinary quarantine centre, nothing more,” said Ambassador Margaret Whitman in a recorded video message.
But the political fallout is likely to linger. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for a parliamentary inquiry, accusing the government of ceding sovereignty. China, which has been expanding its influence in Africa through health infrastructure projects, has already offered to send a team of epidemiologists to “assist with transparent disease surveillance”.
Analysts say the incident reflects a deeper erosion of trust in Western institutions across the continent. “The US has a credibility problem in Africa, and this tragedy will deepen it,” said Dr. James Kariuki, a professor of international relations at the University of Nairobi. “The government of Kenya must now balance its security relationship with Washington against domestic pressure to assert its autonomy.”
As the sun rose over Nairobi on Wednesday, the streets were quiet. But the anger was not. Bills of lading for medical supplies bound for the US centre were blocked at the port of Mombasa by striking dockworkers. And the US Embassy has been forced to cancel a planned health workshop for journalists. The Kenyan government has announced a three-day period of mourning. But the question of how long the calm will last remains unanswered.
