Kenya’s doctors’ union has issued a sharp 48-hour ultimatum to the government, demanding full public disclosure of negotiations with the United States over a proposed Ebola quarantine and treatment facility at Laikipia Air Base — and threatening to bring the country’s healthcare system to a standstill if those demands are ignored.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), led by Secretary General Dr. Davji Bhimji Atellah, released a strongly worded statement on Thursday, May 28, accusing the government of conducting secretive backdoor negotiations that compromise Kenya’s national biosecurity and put the lives of its citizens at risk.
“We are utterly disgusted by the government’s apparent willingness to trade national biosecurity and the lives of its citizens for foreign aid. We will not sit back and watch Kenya be treated as a containment colony for a lethal pathogen that we did not generate,” the union stated.
At the centre of KMPDU’s anger is a question the government has not yet answered — why Kenya? The current Bundibugyo strain Ebola outbreak is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, yet countries directly bordering those epicentres were reportedly bypassed in favour of Kenya, a nation that has recorded no Ebola cases.
The union also challenged the internal logic of the plan itself. “If the United States believes the 12-hour medevac flight back to Washington is too dangerous for its citizens, by what logic is it safe to fly infected or exposed individuals into Kenyan airspace and drop them in Laikipia?” Dr. Atellah demanded.
KMPDU did not stop at transparency. The union raised serious concerns about who would run the facility, expressing alarm at reports that it would be staffed by the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps rather than Kenyan professionals. With over 100,000 healthcare worker vacancies in public facilities and thousands of qualified Kenyan doctors unemployed or on short-term contracts, the union called this unacceptable.
“We will not tolerate an apartheid healthcare model on Kenyan soil,” the union declared, insisting that if the facility goes ahead, the government must use it as an opportunity to permanently employ jobless Kenyan doctors and nurses under proper terms, with hazardous duty pay and full medical cover.
The union also turned the spotlight on the state of Kenya’s public hospitals, pointing out that facilities currently lack basic diagnostic reagents, essential medicines, and functional intensive care infrastructure — making the government’s readiness to host an international biohazard hub all the more baffling.
“Should the Ministry of Health proceed to sign away Kenya’s health security to appease foreign masters without addressing our structural healthcare shortages and staffing crises, KMPDU will mobilise nationwide industrial action,” the statement concluded.
The government has 48 hours to respond.
