Health CS Mutahi Kagwe's Appeal to Covid-19 Escapee Cracks up Journalists [VIDEO]

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.
File

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Thursday, May 28, appealed to a Covid-19 patient who had escaped Mbagathi Hospital to turn himself in.

Speaking to journalists in Kiambu County, the CS, who apparently was not aware that a Covid-19 patient had fled the facility, appealed to him to go back to the facility.

How Kagwe expressed his expression, in what was described as the most informal way, left journalists at the briefing in stitches. 

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (Left) and his Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi during a press briefing in March 2020.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe (Left) and his Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi during a press briefing in March 2020.

"My appeal to the person who has run away is to come back," he begun as journalists burst in laughter.

"If the escapee is among us, I appeal to him or her to kindly identify themselves to the doctors because if you are out there, you are infecting everybody that you come across.

"Sijui unakimbia ndio uwende kwako nyumbani, umkute bibi hapo, alafu uwende kwa mama, um... (I do not understand if you are escaping so that you can go home and infect your wife and then go to your mother's house and...)," he started before pausing.

He wondered how the Covid-19 positive patient would go back to the facility without putting others at risk.

"He will board a matatu, infect passengers. Please go to a health facility or walk back to the facility," Kagwe continued.

Further, Kagwe disclosed that the last time 50 patients escaped a quarantine facility, they all surrendered after the government warned of consequences.

Kagwe warned the escapee that the government eventually also catch up with him.

"I guarantee you that we will find you. We have got ways and means. So, come back, be isolated and after a few days, you will be okay. We will pray for you even if you are a sinner," he concluded, leaving the journalists in stitches.

In a statement at the Kilimani Police Station, the patient is reported to have escaped Mbagathi Hospital at around 8:40 a.m, threatened security officers, before he speeding off towards the nearby Ngumo bus stop.