Kenyan President William Ruto said late Monday that he authorized the establishment of a US Ebola quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base after President Donald Trump personally requested Kenya's support, defending the project amid growing public opposition.

Speaking during a North Eastern Media Roundtable in Wajir after Madaraka Day celebrations, Ruto said the decision was based on Kenya's long-standing partnership with the United States in public health, disease control, and medical research.

“When President Trump asked the government of Kenya to support them by having a center in Laikipia Air Base, I gave the okay because it was an agreement and a partnership with friends who have walked with Kenya for 30-40 years,” Ruto said.

The president's remarks came hours after hundreds of residents and youths protested outside the facility at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, with police firing tear gas and live rounds into the air as demonstrators attempted to march toward the site.

Burning tires, road barricades, and confrontations with security forces disrupted parts of the town.

Nanyuki is located about 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi and serves as the main urban center in Laikipia County.

Ruto rejected claims that the center represented an unusual arrangement, arguing that Kenya has a long history of cooperating with the US and international partners on major health challenges.

“The American government has supported us. They have deployed huge resources in Kenya to work with us on HIV AIDS, to work with us on other diseases. They worked with us on Ebola,” he said.

“In fact, KEMRI was one of the institutions that worked on research on the vaccines for COVID-19 because we have a solid partnership with America and other partners, so the facility that is at Laikipia Air Base is not a facility different from all the other facilities that we have across Kenya,” Ruto added.

The facility has become the focus of a heated national debate following reports that it would be used to quarantine and monitor Americans potentially exposed to Ebola during the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Critics have questioned why such a facility should be located in Kenya and have raised concerns about public health risks, transparency, and national sovereignty.

The controversy has also moved into the courts, as last week, Kenya's High Court temporarily suspended the establishment and operation of the facility pending the hearing of a constitutional petition challenging the project.

The US has defended the arrangement, with the Office of Jeremy P. Lewin, the US under secretary for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, saying Washington was aware of the court action and remained optimistic that concerns could be resolved through engagement with Kenyan authorities.

Kenya has not recorded any Ebola cases, but health officials have intensified surveillance and screening measures at airports, border crossings, and health facilities as authorities monitor the regional outbreak.

Ruto's comments are the first time he has publicly confirmed that Trump made the request for the facility, putting the dispute at the center of both Kenya-US relations and a growing domestic political controversy. (AA)