Kenya’s president again defends US Ebola facility decision

Kenya’s President William Ruto has again defended his government’s decision to let the United States build an Ebola quarantine facility for Americans about 200 kilometres north of Nairobi.

He was speaking during a one-day state visit to South Africa where he held talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“The American government has supported us in this Ebola set-up, infrastructure, health infrastructure, to the tune of 1.8 billion Kenyan shillings,” he said.

The facility in central Kenya is due to host a 50-bed unit for Americans who ⁠might be exposed to the deadly haemorrhagic virus.

Hundreds of people have been infected in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of the outbreak, while cases of the have also been reported in neighbouring Uganda.

Kenyans have been protesting against the planned US facility saying bringing people with Ebola into the country could endanger public health.

“The Ebola situation in eastern DRC is a source of concern for any country, including Kenya that is mindful of matters health of its citizens,” Ruto said, adding that “the most responsible thing to do is to prepare".

Ramaphosa, for his part, assured Ruto that South Africans are not xenophobic.

He described government plans to deal with concern over growing anti-immigrant sentiment and attacks in parts of South Africa.

"Yes, there will be envoys. Yes, there will be people that we will send around, not only on the continent, but also around the world,” he said.

“What we seek to do is to get the issue of migration broadly and properly addressed and where we should get as many key role players and countries to work together to address the challenge of migration."

"South Africa has become an oasis, an oasis of people who want to come here for a whole number of reasons, we need to be working with all other sister countries to see how best this challenge is resolved," Ramaphosa said.

Both leaders hailed the strong trade partnership built between the two countries over the past three decades.

They signed six new agreements to deepen bilateral cooperation, including on trade, maritime transport, education, and culture.

Kenya is South Africa’s largest trading partner outside the Southern African Development Community region with more than $675 million flowing between the two countries annually.