A planned US-built Ebola quarantine centre at Laikipia airbase in Nanyuki, Kenya (a highland county with a fraught colonial land history), has sparked violent protests that have left three people dead, including a 17-year-old schoolboy, with a court order now halting construction. The proposed 50-bed facility, intended to isolate American citizens potentially exposed to Ebola during outbreaks in East and Central Africa, has reignited deep-seated grievances over land dispossession dating to British colonial rule, when vast tracts of Laikipia were reserved for European settlers under the so-called White Highlands system. Critics argue the project bypasses constitutionally mandated public participation and echoes historical agreements — such as the 1904 and 1911 Maasai accords — that stripped local communities of their land without consent, while Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary has controversially insisted that public consultation is not legally required for public health infrastructure.