COVID-19: Governors threaten to lock down their counties

Governors have threatened to ask President Uhuru Kenyatta to lock down counties that will pose health risks over failure to contain the spread of Covid-19.

In a statement on Wednesday, July 15, the Council of Governors (CoG) expressed disappointment in how Kenyans were treating the situation casually despite a spike the number of cases.

“In the event that the situation gets dire, individual county governments will have no choice but in consultation with President Uhuru Kenyatta, seek to lock down the affected county to contain the rapid spread and protect lives,” the CoG warned.

From left: Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o, Council of Governor chairman Wycliffe Oparanya and Trans Nzoia governor Patrick Khaemba addresses the press in Nairobi on December 16, 2019.

At the end of July, the president is expected to address the nation and give direction based on the National Emergency Response Committee on Coronavirus recommendations.

“In the next 21 days, we shall study patterns of interactions and the spread of the disease. Any trends that signal a worsening of the pandemic, we will have no choice but to return to the lock-down at zero-option,” President Kenyatta stated on July 6.

Governor Oparanya also listed the measures counties have undertaken to protect Kenyans from the adverse effects of the virus.

The 47 county governments have cumulatively set aside 271 isolation health facilities with a total of 12,034 beds.

Additionally, there are 447 ICU beds and 437 ventilators spread out  in the counties.

The council called on the government to work towards improving the testing capacity within the county clusters to ensure shorter turnaround time for results.

“The [testing turnaround] time has been delayed from the initial 24 hours to 7 days. This is not good enough in this war,” Oparanya criticised.

County governments have set up infection prevention committees to ensure compliance of the safety protocols issued by the Ministry of Health.

A total of 23,280 healthcare workers have been trained and 68,213 community health volunteers are ready for deployment.

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