Kenyan communities resist US biosecurity colonialism: Ebola quarantine hub exposes global health inequities and neocolonial power dynamics

The Kenyan protest against the US-funded Ebola quarantine center is not merely a local grievance but a symptom of a deeper systemic crisis: the weaponization of global health security to serve Western interests while African nations bear the risks and costs.

This reflects a colonial legacy where African sovereignty is subverted under the guise of 'protecting the world,' a paradigm reinforced by institutions like the US CDC and WHO's global health security agenda. The protest aligns with broader resistance across the Global South to 'biocolonialism,' where Western nations export risk to poorer nations without addressing the structural drivers of disease, such as poverty or weak healthcare systems. Indigenous knowledge systems, which emphasize communal care and holistic healing, offer a stark contrast to the militarized, individualistic US model, yet they are systematically excluded from global health governance. The solution lies in decolonizing global health security, shifting from outsourcing to local leadership, and integrating indigenous knowledge into epidemic response. This requires dismantling the power structures that prioritize Western lives over African well-being, and instead building health systems that serve the needs of the communities they are meant to protect.