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Reuben Mwambingu @reubenmwambingu

Kilifi Deputy Governor Gideon Saburi, who has tested positive for coronavirus, will face court charges when he is discharged from hospital for refusing to isolate himself after coming back from a foreign trip.

Without naming him, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said that a “senior government official from Kilifi” who refused to go into self-quarantine for the mandatory 14 days would be arraigned in court to face charges of willfully exposing people to the disease. 

“We have observed there are those who aren’t observing self quarantine protocols.

National Emergency Response Council (NERC) has decided that those who violate self-quarantine protocol will be quarantined for the full 14 days and thereafter arrested and charged in accordance with the Public Health Act.

This will apply to a senior government official who refused to observe this protocol and was forcibly quarantined.

Upon the completion of the period given by medical authorities he will be charged,” the minister said during a press briefing outside Harambee House (the Office of the President), Nairobi, yesterday.

Protect Kenyans

And now health authorities in Kilifi are tracing people suspected to have come into contact with Saburi who came back from Germany and allegedly refused to go into self-quarantine.

The deputy governor is said to have interacted with several staff members of the County Assembly in his office and further went on to attend a local burial where he is feared to have come in contact with several other people.

Health officials from the Kilifi County emergency response team had picked him up from his residence and took him to an isolation centre. 

On Friday, the minister said a suspected Covid-19 case had been forcibly quarantined in Mombasa.

“Today, we have been forced to quarantine an individual in Kilifi county after refusing to do so, on arrival from abroad.

And we will continue doing so to protect other Kenyans from the contagious virus,” the CS said during a media briefing.

Kilifi County’s communications department declined to comment on the matter and said the Ministry of Health in Nairobi would communicate.

Governor Amason Kingi has confirmed that he also came into direct contact with the patient and he has as a result gone into quarantine since March 19, 2020 as protocol demands.

He said the emergency response team visited his home and collected specimen but the tests turned out negative.

“Despite turning negative, coronavirus protocol dictate that I continue with self quarantine till the expiry of 14 days. I will fully comply,” said the Governor in a statement.

He added that the coronavirus emergency response teams have already been deployed across the county and are tracing each and every contact.

The deputy governor is said to have arrived in the country on March 6 from Germany via Amsterdam and he is said to have met Governor Kingi and senior county officials as well as interacting with hundreds of residents in social gatherings including burials and wedding ceremonies in Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi.

On March 7, a day after arriving back, Saburi met a group of Rabai Members of County Assembly at Royal Hotel in Mazeras for preparations of the International Women’s Day function in Rabai.

He organised a breakfast meeting with the MCAs before proceeding for the burial of former Deputy Governor Kenneth Kamto’s bodyguard within the same Rabai constituency.

Rabai MP William Kamoti accompanied him. The deputy governor would later return to the Royal Hotel in Mazeras and continue with meetings with the MCAs.

Close contact

He attended the women’s day function at Rabai where Governor Kingi and other Kilifi leaders were also present.

He is said to have attended three other burials and two weddings where he is reported to have interacted with close to a 1,000 people, according to a source privy to his movement after the Germany trip.

In one of the burials he attended he was photographed in close contact with Lands Chief Administrative Secretary Gideon Mung’aro as they shared the high table.

On Wednesday afternoon of March 18, Saburi is said to have accompanied his driver to a place called Karama Mbuzi in Majengo area of Mombasa where they had a meal of Ugali and mshikaki.

The following day on March 19, he was spotted in a nightclub in Bamburi area where he mingled freely with a number of revellers.

On Friday, March 20, again alongside his driver, they took refreshments at Cafesserie Mombasa within Nyali centre where he also mingled with a number of revellers for several hours before he left for his house in Bamburi.

It was on this same day Friday that Kagwe warned that the government will not hesitate to forcibly quarantine anyone who fails to abide by instructions outlined by the government in regards to Covid-19 containment measures.

But according to sources, attempts to quarantine the official had failed as he resisted vehemently. 

He was reportedly approached by health officials where his samples were taken and advised to quarantine but he dramatically declined.

On watching the CS’s live address, he reportedly left his home in Bamburi and spent the night at a friend’s house in Mtwapa.

However, Governor Kingi reportedly dispatched county askaris to track him down and he was forcibly arrested before he was taken to Coast Provincial General Hospital in Mombasa where he is said to have been hospitalised in isolation.

His driver, who had accompanied him in all his movements since he jetted back is also quarantined after he displayed Covid-19 symptoms.