Police officers were deployed in Nanyuki on Tuesday, June 9, after protesters took to the streets to picket against the establishment of an Ebola quarantine and treatment facility in the county.
The police lobbed teargas canisters to disperse the multitude of protesters who marched around the city to air their views.
Protesters engaged in running battles, despite maintaining that the demonstrations were peaceful.
A section of the locals carried a white coffin with the words Ebola imprinted in red across the Nanyuki Town Central Business District.
“We are peaceful. We are saying no to Ebola. They are butchering the Constitution, yet we want to be heard,” a number of those picketing chanted.
A specialised police unit of plainclothes officers who were heavily armed arrived to reinforce the Administration Police Officers after they were overwhelmed by the protesters.
The law enforcement officers arrested a number of the picketers and ferried them to the police station. Media practitioners covering the protests were forced to defend their colleague after the police attempted to arrest him.
In the wake of the mass action, several businesses within Nanyuki Town were forced to shut down operations.
The protests came a day after the Laikipia County Government urged the High Court to halt the establishment of the Ebola facility within the Nanyuki Air Base.
Laikipia County Health CEC Albert Taiti told the court that the facility poses high health risks to area residents, business, tourism, and the safety of children in the county.
Last week, Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale maintained that the government did not have to consult Kenyans on how to handle the Ebola pandemic.
The government maintained that there was very little risk of the virus spreading to the local community.
Duale explained that only the team of qualified doctors from the US and medics from the Kenya Defence Forces would come into contact with the patients.
The CS disclosed that 22 other Ebola quarantine and treatment facilities would be set up across the country.
