Kenyan police shot dead a protester as hundreds of people staged new demonstrations on Tuesday against a quarantine centre, opens new tab in Kenya for Americans exposed to Ebola, eyewitnesses and a protest leader told Reuters.
Patrick Wahome, who has helped organise protests in the central town of Nanyuki against the facility, and multiple eyewitnesses at the scene said the man died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Two Reuters reporters, who did not witness the shooting themselves, saw the body lying motionless with a large wound to the head in the back of a police van.
A police spokesperson said he did not have information about the incident.
“Hooded police officers…. fired live bullets and arbitrarily arrested 19 protesters,” the non-profit Kenya Human Rights Commission said in a statement posted on its X account late on Tuesday.
Officers attacked protesters and journalists, the statement added.
Reuters could not independently verify the claims made by the NGO.
The proposed 50-bed unit at the Laikipia Air Base, next to Nanyuki, has angered many Kenyans.
They accuse the United States (US) of offloading the risk of caring for those exposed to the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda, where there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 100 confirmed deaths.
Two people were killed in protests last week in Nanyuki.
Early on Tuesday, police began firing tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters. Some waved Kenyan flags and one carried a white cross emblazoned with the phrase “Reject Ebola” in red.
More than 10 protesters were also detained by police, Reuters reporters said.
