How Sneaky Kibra Driver Fooled Police to Spread Virus in Siaya

Police set up roadblocks isolating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 7, 2020.
Police set up roadblocks isolating the Nairobi Metropolitan Area on April 7, 2020.

A driver from Kibra, Nairobi, has attracted outrage after using sneaky means to fool police manning roadblocks to ferry a group of Covid-19 positive mourners to Siaya.

Speaking during the daily press briefing at Afya House on Thursday, May 21, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe disclosed that the suspect obtained an authorisation letter from an unqualified individual and used it to bypass police roadblocks.

After tests were carried out on the mourners, seven were confirmed to be positive of the Covid-19 virus risking further spread of the disease in Siaya.

"There are also seven cases now in Siaya and their story is a sad one because the departure point of that case is actually in Kibra. Somebody in Kibra, without the authority to authorise anybody to travel, signed a document that allowed and respected by Police all the way from Kibra taking mourners for a funeral.

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe speaking during a presser outside Kenyatta National Hospital, April 2020.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe speaking during a presser outside Kenyatta National Hospital, April 2020.
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"The mourners themselves were positive and therefore were identified by our teams in Siaya. There is a reason why we call for a cessation of movement from Nairobi," stated Kagwe.

He further appealed to Kenyans to observe the directives issued by MoH arguing that trying to outsmart police officers, was detrimental to the fight against the virus. 

"We are asking people to maintain social distance because this something that is going to cause deaths. There is a reason why the government ordered people in Nairobi and Mombasa to stay within the cities," he warned.

Siaya has been a county to watch since the pandemic hit the country in March 2020 after being rocked with the case of a priest who had allegedly deliberately spread the virus in Siaya after touching down from Italy.

Rome-based Fr Richard Oduor, was arrested shortly after being discharged from hospital, before later being released on a Ksh500,000 bond.

In mid-April, a bizarre burial also rocked the county where a Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) employee was hurriedly buried in a shallow grave raising eyebrows.

A police report confirmed that the man had travelled from Mombasa on Sunday, April 5, accompanied by his wife and two children before he passed away on Friday, April 10, at around 8.00 p.m.

The employee and his family were involved in a minor accident while travelling to their country home along the Kerich-Kisumu highway necessitating the police to tow his car to Awasi Police Station.

A section of Kenyans had decried the callous way in which the state handled the situation without involving the deceased's family members.

Medical practitioners in protective gear at the Coronavirus Isolation facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020, (left) and hasty burial of the Covid-19 victim in Siaya on Sunday, April 12, 2020.
A medical practitioner in protective gear at the Coronavirus Isolation facility in Mbagathi District Hospital on Friday, March 6, 2020, (left) and hasty burial of the Covid-19 victim in Siaya on Sunday, April 12, 2020.
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