Description: One person was killed and dozens others were injured in the latest wave of protests in Kenya, after President Wiliam Ruto publicly supported the US – led plan to construct an Ebola treatment facility on Kenya’s Laikipia Air Base. Kenya’s High Court stripped the facility claiming it was illegal since the US would effectively import a healthcare risk into the borders of the country. The upsurge in civic unrest arrived after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the US plan to build the facility in order to treat US citizens infected with Ebola from the latest outbreak in the DR Congo. The protests sparked further outrage since satellite imagery made public by several news agencies demonstrated that construction works were continuing despite objections and legal ramifications. US State Department officials were claiming that they were aware of the ongoing objections, however, a potential solution was on the table.
Impact: The Ebola camp project is likely to position President Ruto into a precarious situation between backstopping the civil unrest from unraveling into a political crisis and appeasing his US allies by attempting to counteract the High Court’s decision on the project. The death of protesters from the latest civic unrest coupled with the continuation of construction work would highly likely further escalate the protests potentially turning even more violent and deadly which in turn could transpire towards a full – blown civil and political crisis. Kenya is also faced with high levels of unemployment, civil liberty issues and struggling economy, conditions which sparked the mass protests last year. These existing conditions are likely to further fuel public outrage and lead towards a wider mobilization of the civil population. Instability would persist in the short to mid – term, depending on Ruto’s positioning on the Ebola project and the US pressure to go forward with the plan.