UPDATE: The government has indicated that it will review the cases of all those placed in quarantine to see who would settle the expenses incurred as a result of the mandatory quarantine.
In a statement released by Health CAS Mercy Mwangangi Saturday, April 11, she announced that the government would review the issue of whose reponsibility it is to take care of the accommodation costs on a case by case basis.
"We are aware of the issue at the Pride Inn Hotel and we have a team that is working with the hotel to ensure that the matter is solved in an amicable way," she stated.
The Pride Inn Hotel in Nairobi was reported to have withdrawn the services of all people under quarantine at the facility.
A report by Citizen TV on Saturday, April 11 indicates that the restaurant took the decision after the occupants failed to clear their pending bills.
The hotel has been one of the quarantine centres used by the government to monitor people who flew into the county ahead of the March 25 deadline.
The facility has been under fire for the most part since the government's directive that all passengers flying into the country to be put under mandatory quarantine at the facilities of their choice.
According to reports from the Daily Nation on April 7, tensions were brewing at the facility after Kenyans quarantined there refused to pay the hotel for the 14 extra isolation days directed by the government.
One of the people in isolation told the publication that health officials at the facility had reportedly written to the Ministry of Health Director-General Amoth seeking to have them released as they had followed state guidelines and also tested negative for COVID-19.
“They are supposed to look at every facility on its own merit. The ministry official attached here says they have written to the DG saying that we have observed all the guidelines, and we should be released," he stated.
"But they have told us there was another report from NIS that has been used to bring about this directive of holding us here,” the source who sought anonymity was quoted.
The reports further indicated that as of April 7, the people in isolation had reportedly been locked out of their rooms after they refused to pay the Ksh6,000 per night charged by the hotel.
“They have refused to transfer people to other cheaper facilities. The hotel has refused to provide food for lunch, saying as per their system we are checked out; some people have diabetes, and people will starve,” the person lamented.
According to the Standard on April 5, another family was up in arms as their bill stood at Ksh400,000 even before the government announced an extra fourteen days for those in quarantine.
According to him, the daily cost for the three rooms is at the facility is Ksh28,000, an amount he that he opined would have been sufficient to cater for police officers to ensure they self-quarantined in their home for the past two weeks.
The government announced an extension of the quarantine period by 14 days on April 5, 2020.
