US Ebola patient flown to Germany as court halts Laikipia facility
Demonstrators protest against a US-backed Ebola quarantine plan to establish a 50-bed facility at a Kenyan air force base intended to host Americans exposed to Ebola, in Nanyuki town, Laikipia County on June 9, 2026.
What you need to know:
- When the Nation reached out to Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale for comment, he suggested that bringing the patient to Kenya would be impossible since the court had stopped construction of the facility.
- The US Embassy in Kenya did not respond to requests for information.
A United States citizen who tested positive for Ebola while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may not be brought to the Laikipia quarantine facility for observation following a court order that halted the facility's construction. International media reports indicate that the patient has instead been evacuated to Frankfurt, Germany, for advanced medical care.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced over the weekend that it is coordinating with the patient's employer, US government agencies, public health officials and partners in DRC to prevent further spread of the virus and to trace anyone who may have had close contact with the patient.
The citizen was working for Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organisation that provides physical assistance as part of its missionary work. The organisation is led by Franklin Graham, son of the late Christian evangelist Billy Graham. The patient had spent the past month handling logistics work in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, and reportedly had no direct contact with Ebola patients. He has been quarantined since earlier this week at one of the organisation's two Ebola treatment facilities in the region.
When the Nation reached out to Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale for comment, he suggested that bringing the patient to Kenya would be impossible since the court had stopped construction of the facility. The US Embassy in Kenya did not respond to requests for information.
This marks the second confirmed American case linked to the current outbreak. The first, a missionary physician, was diagnosed shortly after health officials declared the outbreak in mid-May and was also flown to Germany for treatment. The question of how to handle American Ebola patients has become increasingly complicated for the Trump administration, which has moved away from the practice of repatriating infected health workers and other citizens to specialised treatment facilities in the US.
The plan to build a dedicated treatment centre in Kenya for American patients encountered significant resistance, marked by public protests, a parliamentary summoning of CS Duale and a High Court suspension. Appearing before the court in June to answer contempt charges, Duale confirmed that the Ministry of Health had officially halted construction of the Ebola quarantine and isolation facility at Laikipia Airbase.
"I wish to confirm to the court that the establishment of quarantine facilities at Laikipia Airbase, forthwith, has been stopped pending the substantive determination of the petition," Duale stated in his affidavit.
The suspension followed a 22 June 2026 High Court ruling that cited Duale for contempt of court. He had attempted to continue construction at the military base under the banner of national disease surveillance, despite earlier conservatory orders halting a joint Kenya-US health collaboration.
As of July 7, Kenya had tested 122 samples from 119 alerts, all of which returned negative results. The samples were drawn largely from Nairobi (71), Uasin Gishu (13), Garissa (4), West Pokot (4), Bungoma (4), Kiambu (4), Busia (4), Kisumu (3), Nyeri (3), Nakuru (3), Kilifi (2), Mombasa (2), and one each from Nyamira, Wajir, Laikipia, Trans Nzoia and Kajiado. Screening has been rolled out across 15 points of entry, with more than 199,000 travellers screened cumulatively.
Kenya has assembled a standby team of 343 trained responders who can be deployed quickly if needed. The team comprises 102 individuals who worked on the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, 51 graduates of the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, 118 members of the Africa Volunteer Health Corps, and 72 personnel trained through the Basic Public Health Emergency Management programme. In addition, 3,161 healthcare workers at the national and county levels have been sensitised on Ebola. Of these, 2,747 were reached through virtual training sessions on the ECHO platform, while the remaining 414 received in-person training.
Surveillance remains ongoing, with enhanced monitoring at points of entry, particularly targeting travellers from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 3,000 national and county healthcare workers have been briefed on Ebola virus disease protocols, the majority through twice-weekly virtual sessions, with the remainder trained in person across several high-risk counties.
According to the National Public Health Institute, as of July 13, DRC, Uganda and France had cumulatively recorded 57 new suspected cases, 38 confirmed cases, 23 confirmed deaths and five recoveries. Since the outbreak began, the three countries have reported a total of 1,851 confirmed Ebola cases, 284 suspected cases, 650 confirmed deaths and 318 recoveries. The overall case fatality rate stands at 35 per cent, meaning more than one in three confirmed patients has died.
DRC remains the epicentre of the outbreak. As of July 9, the country had recorded 1,830 confirmed cases, 648 confirmed deaths and 300 recoveries, alongside 284 suspected cases still under investigation. Uganda, which has seen a more contained spread, had by July 11 recorded 20 confirmed cases, two confirmed deaths, one probable death and 17 recoveries. Its case fatality rate of 10 per cent is significantly lower than that of the DRC, and no suspected cases were under active investigation at the time of reporting. France recorded a single confirmed case, which ended in a full recovery with no deaths.
Genomic sequencing has confirmed that the strain driving the outbreak is Ebola Bundibugyo, a rare variant for which no approved vaccine or therapeutic currently exists.
