Police officers patrolling at Kaptembwo Estate in Nakuru. [Photo:Kipsang Joseph]
Like a baby deer finding fascination with a leopard, Kenyans have continued to defy the Covid-19 directives given by the government to prevent the spread. This reckless bravado is something the government says will cost us a lot.
It is this irresponsibility that has seen police arrest 20 people who were caught drinking after locking themselves in a restaurant in Kilimani, Nairobi; they will be put in forced quarantine for 14 days.
The incident at Kilimani is like a trend all over the country where other incidents of the same design continue to baffle authorities.
9 people packed their bags and an empty casket 2 days ago from Nairobi to Homabay to attend the burial of their grandmother in Seka village, Rachuonyo North Constituency. Although they claim the casket is for the dead grandparent, authorities have established it was used as a decoy to bypass police in roadblocks. The individuals were quarantined and one of them, the driver was found to be Covid-19 positive.
“This person has now taken the disease to Homa Bay where we have now tested the first possible case in Homa Bay,” said Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe while speaking in his daily briefing at Afya house in Nairobi.
As that happens another group of six adults and six children had come to kendu Bay from Nairobi were taken into custody. The twelve were later quarantined at Kenya Medical and Training College (KMTC) in Homa Bay town.
“The number of people who will die in this country and the number of people who will not die in this country will depend purely on the level of discipline we exhibit going forward. There models that say we could lose as many as 28,000; dead as a result of this disease,” warned Kagwe.
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Spilling over to all directives, it’s all business for some Kenyans who defy the 7pm curfew by doing business once the police stop patrolling. Boda Boda riders are the main kingpins of the night ensuring that most businesses that operated in the cloak of darkness stay afloat.
This face of Kenyans is a mixture of both laxity on the side of the police in enforcing the curfew but what’s more striking is the irresponsibility of people in taking the already brutal threat seriously.
Police officers patrol at night to enforce curfew in Nairobi, Kenya. [EFP]
It is this same threat that Kenyans take lightly that has taken over 33,082 lives in the United States and infected more than 716,000 people. As the numbers continue to increase in Kenya, authorities have advised Kenyans to heed Health Ministry guidelines.
These detailed guidelines have come as the government tightens efforts to contain a virus they believe has already found its way into the wider population and its silently raging havoc.
“Do not buy drugs from the markets or pharmacy shops, particularly during this time of coronavirus. Doing so takes away critical time necessary in managing Covid-19 disease and it may be too late by the time one is reporting to a hospital.” Read a tweet by Kenya’s spokesperson.
Kenya has a total of 262 cases of Covid-19 and a total of 22 deaths; numbers which keep on rising every day.
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