The Kenyan government urged citizens to remain vigilant and follow the laid-out prevention measures as the lifting of an order of cessation of movement into and out of certain areas in the country came into effect.
On Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the order affecting the Nairobi Metropolitan Area and the counties of Mombasa and Mandera will end on Tuesday at 4am. He, however, extended the 9pm-5am curfew in place for an additional 30 days.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe warned Kenyans not to think that the government had declared that the pandemic was under control. Instead, he said that, the government decision placed greater emphasis on Kenyans to police themselves knowing the tragedy that would befall them if they did not.
“With the easing of restrictions, we can no longer look up to the police to enforce adherence of containment measures. Any slight imagination of this is a recipe for disaster because it is not realistically possible to deploy a police officer for every Kenyan. Therefore, as we look forward to another phase during this period of the pandemic, we must take a step back and reflect on our duty as individuals and as a people. Remember, there is no right without duty,” Kagwe said.
There have been reports in local media of a section of the population violating the measures in place, such as the evasion of road blocks to enforce the cessation of movement, some bars operating in secret and gatherings in private among others.
Kagwe admitted that while it may be inevitable some people will flout the regulations, the onus was on an individual to avoid putting themselves in compromising situations which would expose them to getting the virus.
“If you know that a place is going to be crowded, why go there? Do not go there. If you know that a marketplace, the person who is selling you your commodities does not care about corona, is openly speaking and spitting on your cabbages, why buy them? There are so many other people who are wearing masks. Why buy cabbages from a person who is not wearing one?” he added.
Many Kenyans who live in the Nairobi are expected to travel to their rural homes in other parts of the country to get some respite from the financial hardships they face in the capital. Several of them have lost their jobs or had a significant reduction in their income making their stay in the city difficult.
However, the fear is that with the lifting of the containment measure, a possible exodus of people from Nairobi, the worst-affected area of Kenya, may lead to the virus being exported to other areas of the country.
“When we travel upcountry, we take things to our parents and grandparents. We take bread, sugar and others. However, for now, take (face) masks, sanitizers and take to them. Do I really visit my mother without a mask knowing very well that I could either pass the virus to her or even kill her? Do I really want to do that? It’s a choice. The government can’t stop you from doing that,” Kagwe noted.
He added that there will be no transfer of COVID-19 patients in other counties to Nairobi saying patients will be treated wherever they are.
“There will be no lifting of people from counties to Nairobi. In a little while, as we see the progress in hospitals today, there will be no capacity for you to be brought to Nairobi for treatment because chances are by the time you are being brought to Nairobi, Nairobi will already be overwhelmed, if it comes to that,” Kagwe said.
Kagwe announced that Kenya, the tenth African country to exceed 8,000 cases, had reported 183 new confirmed cases raising its total number to 8,250. The East African nation has also recorded 167 deaths and 2,504 recoveries from the virus.
