Seven Americans who went to DR Congo to fight Ebola are now sleeping on army cots in tents in central Kenya, and Kenyans are asking why the risk has been moved to their doorstep.

Seven American aid workers who had been helping to tackle the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo are now in quarantine at a brand-new isolation facility in Kenya, after the US government brought in fresh travel restrictions.

cbinews.tv reports that, the head of the US charity that employs them confirmed the move to Reuters, saying the group are the first known people to use the facility.

It is a facility that has already caused serious pushback. The 50-bed bio-isolation unit is being built by the US government on an air force base in central Kenya for asymptomatic Americans who may have been exposed to the virus in DR Congo or Uganda. Many Kenyans see it as America offloading its health risk, and the project is at the centre of a court case where a judge ordered construction to stop. That order was ignored, with building continuing according to US officials and satellite imagery.

Last month Kenya's health minister announced an immediate halt to construction after being found in contempt of court for failing to observe the suspension order pending a final ruling.

Washington's new rule says American citizens returning from DR Congo, where the Ebola outbreak is ongoing, must spend three weeks in a third country before they are allowed to enter the United States.

A US State Department official told Reuters that the group had "voluntarily moved to the Kenya facility for precautionary monitoring and isolation" and that the decision was taken "strictly out of an abundance of caution."

"Kenyan authorities have authorised their movement into the facility under the observation of the US Public Health Service clinicians," the official said.

Kenya's health ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and a senior foreign ministry official said they had no information on the transfer.

Another source familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous, told cbinews.tv that the group arrived at the site in central Kenya on Monday and were sleeping in army cots in tents. He said some had treated Ebola patients at the Christian aid group's treatment centres in Congo, while others had done construction work with no direct contact with the sick.

"There is one potential high risk exposure," he said, adding that their health is being monitored and Kenyan authorities are not allowing the group to leave the facility to travel anywhere else in the country.

Ebola, which is often fatal, spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people or animals.

The group works for Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical Christian organisation that operates in disaster zones worldwide and has been promised several million dollars from the Trump administration for the Ebola response. It is one of the biggest foreign aid groups treating Ebola in Congo and has the largest number of Americans on the ground, working closely with the World Health Organization.

One of its US staff members who caught Ebola earlier this month was transferred to a hospital in Germany on Monday. The State Department said any decisions on treatment would be made on a case by case basis.

There is no proven treatment or vaccine for the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus, which has already killed at least 828 people since mid-May. The WHO says it is still spreading largely undetected.

Despite criticising the travel restrictions, the charity's head said he would like Americans who catch Ebola to benefit from treatment in Kenya, after members of the group toured the facility this week.

"It's a state-of-the-art facility. If somebody did get sick, that's the place you want to take them," he said.

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