The National Assembly has cancelled attending a global convention in New York, US over coronavirus outbreak as reported by Daily Nation on Tuesday, March 3.
The convention, on gender equality, was scheduled for next week at the United Nations headquarters but the legislators opted out as the world combats the spread of the deadly microbe.
The move by the lawmakers follows a directive by the UN to scale down the annual two week Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to one day over the global outbreak.
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi further directed that the legislators refund the allowances they were offered ahead of the trip.
France 24 reported that CSW would hold a meeting on March 9, to embrace a political declaration draft, marking 25 years since the women's rights declaration was signed in Beijing.
However, general debates and several other events were cancelled. This leaves the event exclusively to New York, in turn, freezing out delegations from around the world.
Following the outbreak of the virus in early January, the US has had over 100 confirmed coronavirus cases and 6 deaths all in Washington D.C as reported by NBC news.
With Kenya yet to record a confirmed case of the Covid-19 virus, legislators not attending the global forum is an apparent positive as the country maintains the guard against the deadly microbe.
The government has since issued a directive that all persons entering the country self-quarantine for 14 days, with subsequent tests from health officers.
On February 28, High Court Judge James Makau ordered for the immediate tracing and quarantine at a KDF facility of the 239 passengers who arrived aboard a China Southern Airlines flight on Wednesday, February 26. Some of the passengers had come from as far as Canada.
In the ruling, the judge ordered Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe to undertake the role, to protect Kenyans from any infections from the deadly virus.
Justice Makau issued the order after two doctors had filed a petition in court seeking to have flights from China barred from entering the country in the wake of coronavirus fears.
The doctors cited the risk of the virus spread in the country as the main reason for the suit.
