- The Council of Governors summit which was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta on June 10 was attended by Deputy President William Ruto.
- The Star has established that the National Multi-Agency Command Centre for Covid-19 wants governors and other government officials who attended tested.
Governors are among at least 66 contacts being traced for having interacted with four State House staff who tested positive for coronavirus.
The Star has established that the National Multi-Agency Command Centre for Covid-19 wants governors and other officials who attended an extraordinary summit at State House tested for the virus.
The Council of Governors’ summit which was chaired by President Uhuru Kenyatta on June 10 was attended by Deputy President William Ruto.
It emerged that President Uhuru had called off another meeting today with the county chiefs over the coronavirus scare amid reports of near-paralysis of operations at State House.
Last week’s summit took place a day before samples were extracted from State House staff for Covid-19 tests, which on Monday revealed that at least four individuals had contracted the virus.
According to State House spokesperson Kanze Dena, the four are admitted to Kenyatta University Teaching and Referral Hospital isolation centre for management.
The President and his family had been confirmed negative after the tests.
It was not clear whether Ruto had also taken the Covid-19 test following the revelations.
However, on Tuesday, a highly placed source at the NMACC, located at Embakasi, Nairobi, confirmed that contact tracing on the four patients had narrowed down to at least 66 people.
The agency is charged with tracing contacts of Covid-19 patients and comprises officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, National Intelligence Service and ministries of Health and Interior.
The centre named ‘Operation Kinga Corona’ has advised that all the individuals who visited State House last week including the governors undergo the Covid-19 test to establish their status.
The numbers of those targeted for tests in connection with the State House four could surge to hundreds given the level of interactions that followed the visits.
“We started contact tracing on Monday and we are looking at a conservative figure of 66 people whom we suspect had direct or indirect contact with the four patients,” said the source based at the NMACC.
On Tuesday, Council of Governors Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya denied that governors who attended the State House summit were scared, saying Kenyans must learn to live with the new normal.
“We have to be careful with the disease. People have to be screened. We should not be scared as at the end of the day, we cannot close down this country,” the Kakamega governor told the Star.
“I wish the State House staff who have tested positive quick recovery. It is a disease we have to learn to live with it. If mass testing is done, many people will be found with it.”
The Star understands that the summit which was supposed to be held today at State House was moved to next Wednesday to pave the way for fumigation and proper contact tracing and testing.
Oparanya said the summit had been rescheduled after “we discovered that one week was too short.”
“The meeting will no longer take place. We have agreed that we reschedule it until next week same day. We realise that a week as we had agreed was too short. Counties will still need to deal with issues to do with procurement and so on,” he said.
There were reports that some governors had already panicked and booked ICU beds in their respective counties to handle any emergency.
At least three county chiefs had reserved ICU beds in two high-end hospitals in Nairobi.
The revelations of coronavirus at State House sparked panic among staff, with the administration forced to outline tough measures and strict entry protocols for staff.
“To strengthen Covid-19 containment measures, extra access protocols for State House staff residing outside the compound and visitors have been rolled out,” Dena said in a statement on Monday.
The number of engagements at the government’s seat of power has been cut to the bare minimum as part of the new measures to curb the spread of the disease.
The measures come after State House hosted a series of meetings, including a prayer meeting over the pandemic, the Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting for both National Assembly and Senate as well as the Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1.
Opposition chief Raila Odinga who attended some of the meetings received his coronavirus-free certificate on Monday.
Raila had presented himself for testing on Sunday at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri). As he collected his certificate, the Opposition leader urged Kenyans to voluntarily seek testing so as to know their coronavirus status.
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