KISUMU, Kenya, Mar 29 – Police in Kondele, Kisumu County, were Saturday night compelled fire teargas canisters in a bid to enforce a nationwide curfew to contain the spread of coronavirus amid laxity by residents in the populous sub urban.
Chaotic scenes were also witnessed in Nyamasaria and Obunga where police forcefully dispersed reluctant crowds past 7pm, the stipulated time by which all citizens are required to remain within the confines of their homes.
A section of Kondele residents pelted police officers with stones when they were ordered back to their houses.
Adamant to take orders, police was forced to fire teargas canisters in a bid to disperse them.
In Obunga, James Kizito, a resident in the area, complained the teargas had spread to their homes making it difficult for them to remain indoors after the chaotic confrontations between police ands a section of members of the public.
Kizito said their children were affected too and wondered why police had fired teargas within residential areas.
Armed police were seen patrolling estates within the lakeside city to enforce the curfew throughout the night on Saturday.
The curfew comes at a times Kenya registered a significant increase in the number of coronavirus infections rising to 38.
Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe Saturday said the new cases include four Kenyans, 2 Congolese and a Chinese national.
“All the seven new cases are in Nairobi County which has a total of 28 as of today,” Kagwe told journalists during in his daily briefing at the Ministry of Health.
“Kilifi has six cases, Mombasa 2, Kajiado and Kwale have 1 each.”
Kagwe, said seven new positive cases were among 81 people who were tested in various laboratories countrywide.
“Three are female and the four and males. Out of the seven, four had a history of travel from counties with active transmission. One had traveled to Mombasa while two did not have a travel history but came from contacts,” he said.
He said the first and third patients had tested negative in the initial two tests, and were set to undergo the third test in 24 hours.
“This is good hope because they have shown positive recovery and are responding well,” Kagwe said.
So far, Kenya has recorded one death from the Covid-19, after a 66-year-old man succumbed at the Aga Khan hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) last week.
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