Two people were shot dead by authorities in Nanyuki Town during demonstrations against America’s plans to establish an Ebola isolation facility at a nearby military base, in Laikipia.
One victim was shot near the main Laikipia Airbase, where protests erupted on Monday. He later died in hospital after being taken there by friends.
The second man was already dead when soldiers brought him to the facility.
Both bodies, now in the hospital morgue, show apparent gunshot wounds: one to the chest and one to the shoulder.
One of the victims has been identified as 27-year-old Charles Mang’aro Mwangi. His family insists he was not involved in the protests and was simply going about his daily life when he was shot as police deployed tear gas to disperse the crowds as tensions escalated.
“He was not part of the protests,” his mother, Joyce Wangari, told reporters. “He was just on the road, minding his own business when he was shot.”
Mwangi had returned from work and was heading to see a friend around 6pm local time when he was killed. Their deaths occurred Monday as hundreds of residents marched, blocked roads and burned tyres in opposition to the proposed 50-bed facility at Laikipia Air Base.
The US is building an Ebola isolation centre at the airbase in the Laikipia British BATUK Barracks, approximately 8 kilometres from Nanyuki town. It will be staffed by American medics to treat its own citizens who may become infected in the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to President Donald Trump’s administration.
Reports from President William Ruto’s government in Kenya indicate that the US will also assist in treating Kenyans exposed to or infected with Ebola at the facility, but it is still not very clear.
Kenyans and Laikipia residents fear the facility could put local communities and the country at large at risk of cross-border transmission of this deadly disease with a fatality rate of 50%, according to WHO. Kenya has recorded no Ebola cases so far.
Even so, a US official cited Kenya’s proximity to the outbreak zone and limited regional medical evacuation capacity as reasons for the choice of location, confirming that plans are already underway to transport infected Americans to the Kenyan facility “as needed, including by plane”.
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