Hundreds of youths protest outside Kenya's Ebola quarantine center for US citizens

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Hundreds of youths in Kenya’s central town of Nanyuki on Monday demonstrated against the establishment at the Laikipia Air Base of an Ebola quarantine center for American citizens exposed to the virus.

The protests come two days after Kenya’s High Court suspended the establishment of the facility and the arrival of any foreign patients pending the hearing of a case filed by the Law Society of Kenya and a constitutional watchdog.

The two organizations cited Kenya’s fragile health system as the reason why foreign Ebola patients should not be quarantined in the country.

U.S. officials said Thursday that the United States was planning to send Americans exposed to Ebola while abroad to a new facility in Kenya instead of flying them home. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s plans. They said the facility would be at Laikipia Air Base and would be operational with 50 quarantine beds by Friday.

On Monday, hundreds of youths marched to the gates of the air base, chanting anti-Ebola slogans.

Health Minister Aden Duale on Sunday said the quarantine center was for “everyone” and not exclusively for U.S. nationals.

The U.S. government intends to commit $13.5 million toward Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Local leaders, including Laikipia Governor Joshua Irungu, had told journalists that they were opposed to the establishment of an Ebola quarantine center.

“This will expose our people to Ebola,” he said, adding that many locals work inside the air base and could be exposed.

Kenya has not recorded Ebola cases, but neighboring Uganda has reported nine and closed its border with Congo.

At least 282 confirmed cases have been reported in Congo with over 1,000 suspected cases of the Bundibugyo virus, the current species of Ebola, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.

A protester holds up a placard during a demonstration against a proposed Ebola quarantine center to be established by the United States at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, Kenya, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Anti-riot police officers stand by as demonstrators protest against a proposed Ebola quarantine center to be established by the United States at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, Kenya, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Protesters demonstrate against a proposed Ebola quarantine center to be established by the United States at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, Kenya, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

Kenyan soldiers on a tank patrol as protesters demonstrate against a proposed Ebola quarantine center to be established by the United States at Laikipia Air Base in Nanyuki, Kenya, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

A protester holds up a sign during a demonstration against a proposed Ebola quarantine center to be established by the United States at Laikipia Air Base, in Nanyuki, Kenya, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine senator was arrested Monday on a charge of plunder after he allegedly pocketed a huge kickback in a flood-control project. It is the latest crisis to hit the country's Senate, the upper chamber where a battle for control of the country's political future is playing out.

The special Sandiganbayan anti-graft court had initially issued a warrant for Sen. Jinggoy Estrada’s arrest Friday on a graft charge. He surrendered but was soon released on bail.

The new charge for which he was arrested Monday carries no right to bail.

Estrada, 63, has strongly denied allegations mainly by a former government public works engineer, that he received more than 570 million pesos ($9.3 million) in kickbacks from flood control projects.

Estrada had earlier told reporters at the Senate that he would surrender to authorities after receiving the warrant. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla and police forces took him into custody at the chamber.

“There will be no special privileges,” Remulla said of Estrada and his other co-accused, including former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, who was separately placed under arrest.

Estrada suggested that the corruption cases he was facing and his arrest were a result of his being aligned with the camp of former President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte, a former ally but now an arch political rival of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“I will not yield to threats. I will not be intimidated,” Estrada told reporters at the Senate. “I will not be pressured into surrendering my independence of judgement."

The senator was an actor like his father, former President Joseph Estrada. Both have been previously detained on other corruption-related charges.

Several other senators and members of the House of Representatives have been implicated in the flood control anomalies in a poverty-stricken Asian archipelago that is among the most vulnerable to deadly floods and typhoons.

With Jinggoy Estrada’s arrest, two senators in the 24-member chamber would now be effectively sidelined by legal troubles.

Another senator, Ronald dela Rosa, has gone into hiding after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest for an alleged crime against humanity.

Dela Rosa was a former national police chief who enforced a brutal anti-drugs crackdown under then-President Rodrigo Duterte that left thousands of mostly low-level suspects dead. The unprecedentedly large numbers of killings alarmed Western governments.

Duterte, who stepped down in 2022 after his stormy six-year term, was arrested last year on orders of the ICC and flown to the Netherlands, where he was detained and will face trial for alleged crimes against humanity starting in November over some of the killings.

Duterte and dela Rosa have denied any wrongdoing but Duterte had repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death.

The absence of Estrada and dela Rosa is a setback to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, also an ally of the Dutertes, who recently captured the Senate presidency with a slim majority. With the two out of the Senate, the remaining 22 senators are evenly split between Cayetano’s camp and his rivals.

The numbers are crucial because the Senate will start to put Vice President Sara Duterte on trial in July after she was impeached on May 11 by the House of Representatives, which is dominated by the president’s allies.

Sara Duterte, who has announced her plans to seek the presidency in 2028, was impeached on criminal allegations, which include unexplained wealth and threatening to have the president, his wife and a former House speaker assassinated if she herself were killed due to their political disputes.

She has denied the allegations. If she is convicted by the Senate with the required two-thirds vote of the chamber’s membership, she will be barred permanently from holding public office.

FILE - Senator Jinggoy Estrada speaks on behalf of his father and former Vice President Joseph Estrada during the 90th anniversary of the Office of the Vice President Nov. 14, 2025, at a hotel in Makati, Philippines. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)