Kiambu governor James Nyoro has challenged his counterparts in the country to fast track their county’s levels of preparedness towards containing and controlling Covid-19.
He said that unless respective counties hasten the process of putting up the government’s prescribed beds for isolating Covid-19 patients, the current partial lockdown will continue indefinitely due to the poor levels of preparedness.
Nyoro said failure by most counties to meet the necessary threshold had negatively impacted not only the economy of the entire country but also counties.
“On Thursday last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta who spoke during a virtual meeting of the national and county governments coordinating summit told us that the decision to reopen the country’s economy will be informed by the level of preparedness by counties to respond to the Covid-19 scourge,” he said.
He was speaking at the Kiambu county headquarters on Saturday when he received foodstuffs worth more than Sh.1 million donated by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) towards the Kiambu County Covid-19 Emergency Fund which was presented by the institution’s Vice-Chancellor Prof.Wambui Ngumi.
He said Kiambu county has met most of the requirements set by the government adding that it already has 300 beds capacity and 200 more will be ready in a week’s time.
The governor said that it should dawn on every Kenyan citizen and the world at large that Covid-19 is here to stay and consequently learn how to live with it.
“Covid-19 is here with us and what remains is to learn the ropes and live with it otherwise it will eliminate both the innocent and the font cares,” he said.
Nyoro at the same time reiterated that the county Covid-19 Emergency Fund team had come up with the Adopt a Village Feed a Family philosophy which has since been embraced by hundreds of well-wishers.
He said that those who have embraced the philosophy had committed to feed the vulnerable for three months adding that his administration will adopt the philosophy in future with a view of transforming villages and empower families.
“We have identified 600 cluster villages and also identified needy and vulnerable families across the county and we shall borrow a leaf from the above-mentioned philosophy in the future and engage our people in initiating income-generating activities,” he said.
Prof.Ngumi said JKUAT would walk and work with the Kiambu county government in looking for solutions for the Covid-19.
She recalled that the institution had come up with a battery charged ventilator and was also manufacturing face masks and hand sanitizers.
She thanked Nyoro for committing to buy the ventilators once approved by the concerned public health bodies and the Kenya Bureau of Standards.
“Our institution is a center of excellence and has lately become the darling of many youths wishing to learn and engage in innovation. We also grow and mill maize, sorghum and millet,” she said.
The V.C said that Jkuat was ready to resume learning adding that there is a committee working behind the curtains to ensure that learning will run smoothly once the government announces the opening of schools.
“As we talk, most of the students are learning online and we have committees working behind the scenes to ensure that all will be well when normal learning will resume,” she said.