NAIROBI, Kenya, May 1 – President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday warned he will not hesitate to reintroduce stringent measures to contain COVID-19 if more cases of infections are recorded.
The President said he will escalate the measures, if that is the only way to shield the country from falling into a crisis like currently being witnessed in some countries across the world.
Fort example in India, the public health sector has been overwhelmed, with fatality cases shooting to the brim and thousands of new infections recorded daily.
“If we fail to play our role, our individual role, like I said, like it or not, my responsibility is to protect life first. We shall and we will do everything that is necessary, to prevent what we have seen in other countries, happen in our country,” President Kenyatta said.
This was after the President lifted a lockdown on five counties declared collectively as a disease zone on March 26. He also reviewed curfew hours to run from 10pm to 4am insead of 8pm to 4am and allowed the re-opening of eateries and bars.
The counties that were under lockdown are Nairobi, Kiambu, Kajiado, Machakos and Nakuru.
“It pays nothing, to politicize or to sensationalize. It is your life and the life of 50 million Kenyans that we are talking about. If partner and work together, we can maintain both the health and lives of our people, as well as our economy.”
President Kenyatta explained that the motive of the government is not make the life of Kenyans unbearable, saying his moves are only meant to protect them from the pandemic, that has so far claimed 2,724 lives.
The first case of coronavirus disease was recorded in March 2020.
With the new directive, schools will re-open as per the calendar issued by the Ministry of Education.
In-person and congregational worship shall resume “in strict fidelity to the guidelines issued by the Inter-Faith Council and Ministry of Health. However, the attending congregation is capped to 1/3 of the capacity of the place of worship.”
“The operations of restaurants and eateries in the Zoned Area shall resume in accordance with the guidelines issued jointly by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife. Restaurants are encouraged to utilize outdoor spaces to maximize on physical and social distancing,” the President said.
“All employers and enterprises are encouraged to allow employees to work from home, with the only exception being with respect to employees working in critical or essential services that cannot be delivered remotely,” Kenyatta said.
The President further directed all hospitals to limit the number of visitors for hospitalized patients to one visitor per patient per day.
He extended the prohibition on political gatherings indefinitely.
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