Kenyan Mass Pressure Forces Closure of United States Ebola Treatment Center

Demonstrations and legal actions overturned the controversial decision by Ruto to submit to the Trump administration’s imperialist foreign policy of using Africa as a dumping ground to guard against potential Ebola Virus Disease cases entering the U.S.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Editor, Pan-African News Wire

Wednesday June 24, 2026

Geopolitical Analysis

After weeks of protests and court challenges to the government of Kenyan President William Ruto, the Ministry of Health in Nairobi has announced the cancellation of the plan by the White House to use the East African state as a holding ground for United States citizens suspected of being infected with the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). 

The current EVD outbreak has mainly impacted areas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where over 1,000 cases have been confirmed causing more than 260 deaths.

In neighboring Uganda as of June 22, there have been 20 laboratory-confirmed cases. Two deaths have occurred in the capital of Kampala and in Wakiso. 15 of these cases are said to have been imported by those who had traveled from DRC along with 5 which have been traced to local sources.

A briefing by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that the number of reported cases of the latest EVD outbreak has exceeded those in the first month of any previous outbreak. Health officials at the WHO in Geneva and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia are taking the current situation very seriously in light of the severity of previous outbreaks in Africa.

During the period of late 2013 to early 2016, over 28,000 cases occurred causing 11,000 deaths in three West African states. These cases occurred largely in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Conakry. 

With specific reference to the present outbreak, which was detected during mid-May, it prompted the administration of President Donald Trump to request the establishment of a treatment center in Kenya. Immediately the people inside the country strongly objected to the willingness of President William Ruto to accept the request from Trump.

Ruto has been a close ally of the U.S. during his tenure in office. He attempted to justify the acceptance of the Trump proposal on the grounds that Nairobi has ostensibly benefitted from its alliance with Washington over the years. 

A series of legal challenges were filed by the Law Society of Kenya aimed at halting the project which would have been centered near a military base. Mass demonstrations erupted in the area which were suppressed by the Kenyan police resulting in at least three deaths. 

In a report on the decision to scrap the U.S. initiated project, it notes:

“After weeks of legal turmoil and deadly protests, the construction of a US-funded Ebola quarantine building near Laikipia Air Base in Kenya has officially been stopped by Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale. Duale announced the cessation of the project after being found in contempt of court for allowing construction to continue despite a court order. The 50-bed facility was announced last month as a treatment site for Americans exposed to the deadly virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or Uganda. Kenyans protested the construction site, saying the building would unnecessarily put the Kenyan population at risk, and add excessive strain to the country’s health system.” (https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/ebola/construction-us-backed-ebola-quarantine-unit-kenya-stopped)

During December 2025, the Kenyan government signed a health cooperation agreement with the U.S. after the elimination of other programs facilitated through the Agency for International Development (USAID). This decision was controversial since the Trump administration reversed previous deals with African states aimed at providing pharmaceuticals and other forms of assistance.

Other African states such as Zambia and Zimbabwe have rejected similar proposals claiming that it would not benefit the people of their countries. In addition, the access to health data by the U.S. would violate the sovereignty of African states.

A report on the Jurist.org website said of the new arrangements between some African governments and the Trump administration that:

“Kenya was the first African country to sign onto President Trump’s America First Global Health Strategy. The US later signed other bilateral health agreements with Rwanda, Liberia, Uganda, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Ivory Coast in December. What is unique about these deals is that rather than go through health bodies such as GAVI, the World Health Organization, the African Union, and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new American strategy is to enter into one-on-one agreements with individual states.” (https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2026/01/kenyas-health-data-deal-with-the-us-what-the-agreement-gets-right-and-what-it-misses-in-the-age-of-ai/)

Healthcare Deals with the U.S. Have Been Rejected by Some African States

The West African state of Ghana rejected the Trump deal along with Zambia and Zimbabwe in the southern region of the continent. Serious concerns persist about the effectiveness of the project as well as the conditions under which the State Department will provide purported assistance.

Quality healthcare in Africa has been hampered by the centuries-long systems of enslavement, colonialism and neo-colonialism. During the colonial period, the health status of Africans was not a concern of the western powers.

Since independence and the advent of the new form of colonialism, where Africa is still largely dependent upon the imperialists for exploitative and unequal terms of trade, underdevelopment remains rampant, sustaining impoverishment. The situation in Kenya is indicative of the contemporary situation where although the country is said to have the largest economy in the East Africa region, many people, particularly youth, face unemployment and very little prospect for future social advancement. 

Kenya has failed to create employment and economic opportunities for its people. In recent years mass demonstrations and strikes by the youth and workers have been met with repression by the security forces resulting in imprisonment, injuries and deaths.  

The Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom published an article earlier in the year, saying:

“A deal with Zambia worth $1bn (£0.7bn) has been in limbo since late last year after Washington linked the money to gaining mineral rights in the copper-rich country. Mr. Trump and his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, have rebooted America’s vast international aid spending, claiming it was wasteful, ineffective and was just keeping poor countries dependent on handouts. The overhaul has disrupted long-standing funding to HIV/Aids programs leading to worries the virus is poised to make a rebound in parts of the continent. Mr. Trump’s administration dismantled the $40bn (£30bn)-a-year United States Agency for International Development (USAID) almost overnight, throwing aid programs across Africa into turmoil.” (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/ghana-is-latest-african-country-to-reject-trump-aid-deal/)

These new healthcare arrangements between the U.S. and several African Union (AU) member-states will not makeup for the cuts in assistance that have already occurred. Consequently, more people will be sickened and die from preventable and treatable diseases due to the lack of infrastructure and funding.

The same article from the Telegraph quoted above also points to these factors:

“African nations who have signed up include Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The new agreements to provide funding for HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and polio will partly make up for steep aid cuts brought in after Mr. Trump was elected. But countries’ US funding will still be an average of 49 percent down on 2024 levels according to analysis of early deals by the Centre for Global Development.”

Undoubtedly, these changes in U.S. health foreign policy will not improve the social conditions on the African continent. An already debt-ridden African continent will be compelled to spend more of their dwindling national budgets on healthcare. 

Widespread Opposition to Kenyan Policy Reflects the Subservience to Imperialism

The Kenyan government has been classified as a Major Non-member NATO ally. This designation was bestowed on the East African state by the previous administration of President Joe Biden in 2024. Under the Biden administration, Ruto deployed hundreds of Kenyan police to the Caribbean island-nation of Haiti under the guise of restoring stability. 

This deployment of the Kenyan police was carried out despite the widespread opposition within the country. Even the Kenyan courts ruled that the deployment contravened the constitution.

Ruto was present at the recently held G7 Summit in France. Concurrently, it was announced that the Kenyan government was on the verge of signing a minerals agreement with the U.S. 

Kenya still houses British troops which is a carry over from the colonial era. During May, the Kenyan government hosted a conference with French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at reconfiguring the role of Paris in Africa in light of the discontent with their presence in West Africa and other regions of the continent. 

These contradictions will continue until there is a systematic break with the western capitalist system among the AU member-states. Self-reliance in the healthcare, military and financial sectors is a prerequisite for genuine independence, sovereignty and social emancipation across the continent.