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US confident Kenya will allow setup of Ebola quarantine facility

Red Cross workers disinfect after handling the body of a person who died of Ebola, as aid agencies intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain, at the Centre Medical Evangelique (CME) in Hoho commune of Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 21, 2026.
Khayelihle Khumalo

The United States (US) says it is confident that Kenya will allow it to establish an Ebola quarantine facility.

This is despite the pushback from Nairobi residents over allowing the plan to go ahead.

The Trump administration has been detailing how it plans to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the US, even as it prepares to welcome football fans for the FIFA World Cup.

Travel bans have since been placed on travellers from the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the epicentre of an active Ebola outbreak, while Uganda faces high secondary exposure, with confirmed cross-border transmission, and South Sudan remains at critical risk due to its proximity to the epicentre.

The US is also preventing American citizens who may have been exposed from coming back into the country.

Instead, the Trump administration plans to send them to a quarantine facility it wants to build in Kenya.

On Monday, that plan sparked protests, with hundreds of demonstrators marching through the streets of Nanyuki, 140km north of the capital, Nairobi. But despite the wildly unpopular move, Kenyan President William Ruto has defended the plan.

However, the latest high court ruling has all but delayed any work on the Ebola facility for another three weeks.

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