Police kill protester in Kenya over Ebola quarantine center

Police shot dead a protester in Nanyuki on Tuesday as hundreds marched again against a planned 50-bed Ebola quarantine center at Laikipia Air Base. The facility, about 200 km (124 miles) north of Nairobi, has become a flashpoint over sovereignty, secrecy and who gets to decide how a foreign-backed health project operates on Kenyan soil.

Witnesses said the demonstration turned violent after officers fired tear gas, then live bullets. A protest leader said the man who was killed died from a gunshot wound to the head. Two reporters at the scene did not see the shooting, but they saw a body lying motionless in the back of a police van with a large wound to the head. The Kenya Human Rights Commission later said hooded officers fired live rounds, arrested 19 protesters and attacked journalists. Police said they had no information about the incident when asked.

The protests are centered on a facility the U.S. government planned for American citizens exposed to Ebola while abroad, with the intention of keeping them outside the United States if they became symptomatic. Kenyan President William Ruto defended the project on June 2, saying it was part of a wider national preparedness plan and a long-running health partnership with Washington. For critics, that argument has not answered the core complaint: that the plan moved ahead with too little local consultation and too much secrecy.

The Kenyan High Court first issued a temporary suspension on May 29, after Katiba Institute filed a constitutional petition on May 28. The court extended the halt on June 2 and ordered the government to disclose agreements, negotiations, approvals, risk assessments and operational protocols tied to the project. The Law Society of Kenya also filed a petition, and the court consolidated it with the Katiba Institute case. Local doctors’ groups and rights activists have also objected, and the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union has warned of strike action if the government proceeds.

The confrontation comes as the World Health Organization says Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda were confirmed in May 2026 and involve the Bundibugyo species, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment. That regional emergency helps explain why the U.S. wants contingency quarantine arrangements for exposed citizens. In Kenya, however, the plan has fused public health with policing, and Tuesday’s shooting sharpened the risk of a deeper political and legal backlash.