NAIROBI – Seven US aid workers are isolating at a controversial Ebola quarantine centre in Kenya that was supposed to be halted, their charity confirmed on July 17, with Kenya’s health minister claiming he was unaware.

Three Kenyans have died in violent protests over the creation of the quarantine facility at Laikipia Air Base, about 200km from the capital, Nairobi.

Kenya has never recorded a case of Ebola and many oppose bringing potential carriers of the highly contagious disease into the country.

A Kenyan court ordered the project to halt and declared health minister Aden Duale in contempt for failing immediately to do so.

However, the State Department said in a statement that several US citizens who had been working with Samaritans Purse in Ebola-hit areas of Democratic Republic of Congo had been taken to the facility.

“All of these American humanitarians are currently asymptomatic and at this time, have not tested positive for Ebola,” the State Department said, adding that they were moved to Kenya “strictly out of an abundance of caution”.

“Kenyan authorities have authorised their movement into the facility,” it added.

But asked by AFP for comment, the Kenyan health minister said simply: “Am not aware.”

Duale told the court on June 23 that he had ordered the “immediate and complete cessation of any intended construction” of the facility.

Samaritan’s Purse said in a statement that seven of its ...