Citizen TV journalist Yvonne Okwara has weighed in on the ongoing debate surrounding the proposed Ebola quarantine facility linked to Kenya and the United States, warning that the controversy reflects a deeper governance and communication failure.
Speaking during the News Gang show on Thursday night, Okwara argued that the dispute over the Laikipia-based project is less about the facility itself and more about how information was handled from the outset.
“If there is one lesson this administration still appears unwilling to learn, it is this: communication is not an afterthought to leadership. It is leadership. Trust is not built after decisions are made. Trust is built before them,” she said.
The proposed facility, reported to include a 50-bed quarantine unit at Laikipia Air Base, has been tied to U.S. plans to isolate Americans exposed to Ebola while abroad, with Washington reportedly committing millions of dollars to Kenya’s preparedness efforts.
However, the announcement triggered immediate public debate and legal challenges, with a Nairobi court temporarily suspending aspects of the plan pending further hearings.
Okwara noted that many Kenyans first encountered the proposal through foreign media reports rather than official government communication.
“Remarkably, many Kenyans first learned about it not from their own government, but from American media reports. It was foreign news outlets that introduced Kenyans to a project that would be built on Kenyan soil,” she said.
She said the absence of early and clear communication created confusion and eroded public trust, turning what could have been a technical health preparedness initiative into a politically sensitive issue.
“And so, a simple question emerged. What is the deal?” she posed repeatedly during the broadcast, emphasising what she described as unanswered fundamental questions about the agreement.
Okwara questioned the lack of clarity on the terms of the arrangement, including who approved it, what obligations Kenya had undertaken, what safeguards were in place, and who would use the facility under what conditions.
Instead of clear explanations, she argued, the public was met with reassurance statements about Kenya’s health system, security arrangements, and the absence of Ebola cases—none of which addressed the core concerns.
“Instead of answers, Kenyans were met with obfuscation,” she said, adding that repeated reassurances without detail only deepened suspicion and speculation.
The journalist also pointed to later references by officials to a 2015 agreement as justification for the project, noting that subsequent clarifications from the American side appeared to contradict earlier interpretations.
She warned that the communication gap risked undermining public confidence, especially when courts and Parliament were already demanding clarity on the deal.
“When citizens ask, ‘What is the deal?’, the answer cannot be deflection,” she said, stressing that oversight institutions were not obstacles but constitutional safeguards.
Okwara further cautioned against treating consultation and transparency as procedural burdens, arguing that they are essential pillars of democratic governance rather than administrative formalities.
“The issue is whether this government views accountability as an inconvenience,” she said.
According to her, much of the current tension could have been avoided if the government had disclosed details early, engaged affected communities, and published the terms of the arrangement before public controversy escalated.
She concluded that trust is built through openness, not reassurance, and warned that governments that communicate late and defensively often end up losing public confidence even when their intentions are legitimate.
“Communication builds confidence. Transparency builds legitimacy. And when citizens repeatedly ask, ‘What is the deal?’, a government confident in its decisions should not fear answering the question. It should answer it first,” she said.