CS Kagwe Cautions Escapees From Quarantine Facilities, Asks Them To Surrender

Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has cautioned the escapees who were captured leaving a quarantine facility at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) urging them to surrender themselves to the relevant authorities.

In videos that were circulated online, the escapees were captured jumping over the wall and fleeing from the facility.

While addressing the media for the daily COVID-19 briefings, Kagwe issued a stern warning and called upon the escapees to surrender and check themselves back into quarantine facilities failure to which they will face dire consequences.

Read: COVID-19 Cases In Kenya Rise To 303 As 7 More People Test Positive

“People need to police themselves. The escapees should surrender themselves to quarantine facilities failure of which they render themselves vulnerable to all manner of activities including being taken there by force. It is enlightened self-interest that they take themselves back to the facility,” he said.

Further, the CS called upon all Kenyans to be each other’s keeper as it is the only guaranteed way to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.

He reiterated that citizens who are aware of the identities of the people who escaped from the quarantine facilities should inform the police for their own safety and that of the people surrounding them.

Read Also: Quarantine Escapees To Be Returned To Facilities, National Exams To Go On As Planned – President Uhuru

“We can defeat this disease if we exercise self-discipline by being our brothers’ keeper. we should report each other when people fail to follow govt directives,” he said.

He also warned against irresponsible behavior that may endanger the lives of other people citing the people who are violating curfew and social distancing directives.

Earlier President Uhuru Kenyatta while speaking to Citizen Radio stated that those who had escaped from quarantine facilities will be returned to their respective facilities when caught up with.

As of today, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country now stands at 303 after seven more people tested positive.

Read Also: Matiang’i Bans Movement In, Out Of Mandera Starting 7 Pm As Cases Of COVID-19 Rise

CS Kagwe has indicated that mass testing is ongoing adding that the country aims to conduct 250,000 tests by the end of June.

Out of the 14 fatalities reported, only one was a foreign national who was buried in a cemetery in Nairobi after the government consulted with the relevant authorities and family.

This was in accordance with the directive that the bodies of patients who have succumbed to COVID-19  be buried within 24 hours.