Godwin Kilele, a member of the Taita Taveta county assembly for Sagalla ward, was arrested for flouting the given national safety directives on Covid-19.
The lawmaker was nabbed on the evening of Thursday, April 16, 2020, for not wearing a face mask in public and failing to social distance as featured in a report by Daily Nation on Friday, April 17.
Kilele was taken into custody while in the company of eleven other individuals, after residents raised concerns over their conduct while they enjoyed a game of draughts, alerting the police.
"The station received a tip from the public that people were behaving recklessly, therefore, posing a risk to others. That is why we rushed there to arrest them," a police officer at Voi Police station stated.
The police had earlier nabbed 26 other individuals for similar offences, which saw 14 of them charged at the Voi Law Courts.
Kilele and his colleagues were released after a stern warning by the police regarding public gatherings, and the need to adhere to the guidelines issued by the national government through the Ministry of Health.
Kilele's arrest follows a series of several other arrests made across the country involving senior members of the public flouting the given directives in the fight against Covid-19.
17 people, including 3 members of the Nyeri county assembly were arrested on April 17, at a party in Kingongo. Police stated that the lawmakers would be charged along with the rest of the revellers for violating government orders.
Taita Taveta county has stepped up its efforts in the fight against Covid-19, with more than 500 people in self-isolation across the county.
The county's health CEC John Mwangeka is quoted by the publication, stating that health practitioners, local administration, and disease surveillance teams were monitoring the individuals in self-isolation, following their return into the county.
"We are working with Nyumba Kumi elders, chiefs, ward administrators and sub-county security teams to monitor them," Mwangeka stated.
"We are now focusing on strengthening our capacity to handle cases in need of isolation and quarantine and also following up with the national government on testing locally instead of sending samples to Kilifi," he added.
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