According to eyewitnesses, police opened fire on demonstrators protesting outside a US Ebola quarantine centre set up in the town of Nanyuki, near Mount Kenya. Its construction has caused great uncertainty among foreign tourism agencies on which much of the region's economy depends, centred on eco-tourism and photographic safaris to Mount Kenya and the rhino reserves.
One fatality has been reported, caused by a gunshot wound to the head. The victim is Patrick Wahome, one of the organisers of the protests against the establishment of the facility, who is also calling for attention to be given to the more than 500 people affected by Ebola in the region. Witnesses speak of hooded armed police opening fire indiscriminately on the demonstrators. Reuters reporters did not witness the shooting, but they did see Wahome's lifeless body, with a large bullet wound to the head, which was loaded into the back of a van and taken away from the area.
The Kenya Human Rights Commission, a non-profit organisation, also reports the arbitrary detention of 19 other people. A High Court judge has twice issued orders prohibiting the Kenyan government from taking steps to build or commence operations at the site. Her latest order gave the government a week to disclose all agreements relating to the facility, but that deadline would also have expired days ago.