NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 4- A Kenya Airways pilot Rtd. Captain Daudi Kibati who is among four Kenyans who have succumbed to coronavirus will be buried on Saturday at his Kitui home.
The 63-year-old is said to have had his last flight from John F. Kennedy International airport in New York to Nairobi before he was taken ill.
The Daudi Kibati, the KQ pilot who paid the ultimate price.
He is the one who flew home Kenyans stranded in the US, on the last flight to the country before the government closed the Kenyan airspace to international passenger flights.
According to his family, the pilot who will be buried in Maliku village within Kitui County, was also suffering from diabetes, a complication that must have accelerated his death.
Authorities have given his family 48 hours to bury him in a ceremony that will be attended by his family members and his personal doctor.
So far, four people have died of coronavirus in Kenya, including a six-year-old boy who succumbed on Thursday.
By Friday, the Ministry of Health said 122 positive cases had been confirmed in Kenya. Four have recovered, including Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi who was arrested on being discharged from hospital after authorities accused him of defying a directive for a mandatory self-isolation on returning from a trip to Germany.
Globally, the disease has claimed more than 50,000 people and infected one million others, with Italy and Spain reporting the highest tolls.
“On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Management and staff of Kenya Airways, we join the family of the late Captain Kibati in mourning their beloved one and pray that the Almighty God will strengthen them during this time of sorrow,” the national carrier Chief Human Resources Officer Evelyne Munyoki said in a statement.
Some of the new measures adopted by the Government include a mandatory directive for all passengers on Public Service Vehicles (PSV’s) to wear protective masks.
“We have many people with the virus. Boarding a matatu without a mask means you can easily get infected,” the CS said on Thursday.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has already declared a dusk to dawn curfew that started on Friday last week, with tougher measures expected in the coming days.
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