57 COVID-19 protocol breakers sentenced to one week of community service

A Kibera court has sentenced 57 people to a week of community service across the city for violating the Ministry of Health COVID-19 protocols.

The lot who were released by the court on Monday will be under the supervision of the Nairobi Metropolitan Service (NMS) for the duration.

They will be expected to report for the community service from 8.am to 5p.m daily; their tasks will include the cleanup of Marikiti and Muthurua Markets, Globe, Nairobi River, as will be assigned.

Those who fail to turn up as agreed will be re-arrested and arraigned in court for a stiffer punishment according to a statement by the NMS posted on social media. 

The latest comes in the backdrop of warnings that the health care system in the country was under strain from the rising COVID-19 cases occasioned by the third wave.

As of Monday, Kenya had recorded a total of 122,040 cases after 1,130 people tested positive from a sample size of 5,119.

While addressing the media on Monday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said the test positivity rate from the cases stood at 22% and is the highest this year.

Nairobi County accounted for 730 of the new infections with the Ministry of Health sounding a warning on the rising cases and the strained health care system.

“Our facilities may be overstretched but not overrun, on Jan 22,we had 27 cases in ICU. Yesterday, we had 121 patients in ICU, more on ventilatory support. On Jan 22 we had 1553 patients, now we have 2545. We can easily get discouraged. I want to assure Kenyans that we are still striving to get adequate ICU and isolation beds,” CS Kagwe said