The U.S. plan to open an Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya was meant to help contain the outbreak by isolating American patients exposed to the virus.
Instead, it has caused an outbreak of violence and political rancor, with hundreds of Kenyans taking to the streets in protest.
Last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that no Ebola patients would be allowed to enter the United States after the World Health Organization announced a dangerous outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. Rubio later appeared to soften that stance.
U.S. government officials later told reporters that the Trump administration planned to send to Kenya all U.S. citizens exposed to the virus, rather than bring them home. The Americans would be observed and treated at a 50-bed quarantine unit exclusively for them, set up at Laikipia Air Base in central Kenya, the officials said.
The outcry in Kenya has been fierce.
Hundreds of people have marched through the streets of Nanyuki, the town closest to the air base, to protest the facility. The police have used tear gas to disperse crowds, and at least three protesters have been shot and killed, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission. The Kenyan police did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Critics of President William Ruto of Kenya accuse him of bowing to U.S. interests and risking Kenyan lives by letting exposed American patients into the country when they are being barred from the United States.
