\n<\/p>\n
In its court petition in May to stop the construction, rights group the Katiba Institute warned that the arrangement posed “grave and imminent risks” to public health.<\/p>\n
But in court, Duale dismissed such fears saying any decision he made as the minister of health was “based on science, technical advice and strategic interventions”. <\/p>\n
“The fear that the… facility could serve as a vehicle for Ebola importation into surrounding communities is scientifically unfounded.<\/p>\n
“The facility is located at a military airbase placing it at a significant geographical distance from populated areas with very strict access protocols,” the minister added. <\/p>\n
The health ministry had earlier insisted it had not flouted last month’s court order to stop the joint US-Kenyan building works, because any ongoing construction was being done solely by the Kenyan government in the national interest to protect Kenyans against Ebola.<\/p>\n
But on Monday the judge said the government could not “avoid compliance by recasting or re-characterising the ongoing construction”, adding that a court order “is not an invitation to ingenuity – it is a command to be obeyed”.<\/p>\n
The judge added that Duale knew and understood that all construction at the Nanyuki site had to stop – yet he allowed it to continue. <\/p>\n
In recent weeks Kenya’s President William Ruto has defended the plan for the US-funded Ebola quarantine site, saying he had received a request from the US to establish the centre and a refusal would be “inhuman”.<\/p>\n
He also called on Kenyans not to politicise a matter “so serious” as Ebola, asking politicians to avoid “reckless” talk about it.<\/p>\n
Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy, had not recorded any Ebola cases as of Monday.<\/p>\n