Ghosts of empire: A quarantine centre and Laikipia’s colonial past

Nairobi, Kenya – The death of a 17-year-old schoolboy during protests against a planned US Ebola quarantine facility has transformed a public health project into one of Kenya’s most contentious political controversies this year.

Three people have now been killed, a court challenge has halted construction, and the proposed 50-bed centre at Laikipia airbase in Nanyuki has triggered fierce debate over public participation, sovereignty and foreign influence.

But in Laikipia, the anger runs deeper than the events of the past few weeks.

The facility, intended to quarantine American citizens potentially exposed to Ebola during outbreaks in East and Central Africa, has reopened long-standing grievances in a county where the legacy of British colonial rule remains etched into the landscape. For many residents, the controversy is not simply about disease or public health. It is about land, power and a history that never fully disappeared.

Laikipia occupies a unique place in Kenya’s colonial story. Large parts of the county once formed part of the White Highlands, where some of the country’s most fertile land was reserved for European settlement. More than six decades after independence, descendants of settler families continue to own vast ranches and conservancies, while disputes over land ownership and historical injustice remain unresolved.

As protests against the quarantine centre intensified, those grievances resurfaced with renewed force, exposing how questions first raised more than a century ago continue to shape reactions to foreign involvement in Kenya today.

In May 2021, famed Italian-born conservationist and author Kuki Gallmann was shot by cattle raiders while driving through her conservancy in Laikipia County.

Gallmann’s 40,500-hectare (100,000-acre) ranch is among the largest and most controversial privately owned properties in the region.