NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — Two people died during protests over a contested Ebola quarantine centre for United States (US) citizens in Kenya, a rights group said Tuesday, as President William Ruto defended the planned centre.

The US-built facility at Kenya’s Laikipia Air Base was due to open last week, according to US officials, to quarantine Americans arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is battling a major Ebola outbreak.

The centre — about 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the capital Nairobi — was set to have 50 isolation beds and be managed by US medical staff.

Washington plans to commit US$13.5 million towards Kenya’s Ebola preparedness efforts, the US State Department said last week.

The plan sparked anger at the United States using Kenyan soil and bringing Ebola patients to the country.

Images in local media showed violent protests breaking out near the facility on Monday. Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

Hussein Khalid of rights group VOCAL Africa said in an X post that a 27-year-old man was “shot and killed” during the protests and “died on the spot”.

He told AFP a second person was also confirmed dead, but was still being identified.

Police told AFP they could not confirm the deaths.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Ruto said the proposed US facility was “neither unique nor exceptional but part of a broader national preparedness system”, adding that it “will be there to serve the people of Kenya and to serve our friends, including the Americans”.

“We are a responsible government. We know what we are doing. So people should relax,” Ruto said earlier.

Kenya has recorded no cases of Ebola despite widespread testing of arrivals but neighbouring Uganda has registered 15 cases including one death.

The Kenyan High Court extended a temporary halt to the US facility on Tuesday, according to the rights group Katiba Institute, which filed a petition against the centre.

The court said the Government had seven days to “disclose all agreements” relating to the facility.

A small group of protesters gathered in central Nairobi on Tuesday, wearing white protective gear and carrying a coffin emblazoned with “Ebola” and placards reading: “Reject Ebola in Kenya”.

Some 321 Ebola cases have now been confirmed in the DRC, including 48 deaths, since the outbreak was declared on May 15, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

One US citizen, a medical missionary working in the DRC, has contracted Ebola so far. He was evacuated and is receiving treatment in Germany.

The plan also sparked criticism in the United States.

“The Trump admin should bring Americans home and help them, not outsource that responsibility to a foreign government,” the Democrats’ House Foreign Affairs Committee said on X.