• The patients are KPA port users.
• The 15 were supposed to be released on Wednesday after completion of the 14-day quarantine period.
Fifteen KPA contracted cleaners who were quarantined at Kenya Medical Training College in Mombasa are stranded at the facility because they are unable to pay the charges.
Each person is charged Sh2,000 daily for quarantine and the workers are expected to pay Sh420,000 for the 14 days spent at KMTC.
The workers were taken to the quarantine facility after seven cases were reported at the Kenya Ports Authority.
Mary Amanda, one of those in quarantine, said they were not given any payment agreement to sign on the day of admission.
"When we were brought here, no one told us about the payments. We were taken from our work place to this quarantine facility. We did not even go home to check on our children,” Amanda said.
Amanda said the management has informed them they are supposed to pay Sh28,000 per person for the quarantine period.
“We were told that a day we are supposed to pay Sh2,000 and yet we are just cleaners, we are not on any payslip and the payment we get a day is less than the required amount,” she said.
KMTC principal Marsella Ogendo confirmed the report saying that the suspects cannot afford to pay as directed by the national government.
“We have 15 patients who were supposed to be released yesterday (Wednesday), but when we informed them they said they could not afford,” Ogendo said.
The principal said the issue has been raised with the KMTC board of management and the county government and a social worker from the county is to conduct an assessment before a decision is made.
However, Ogendo said the patients have also not been released because they were still waiting for their results from the county government, contrary to what Amanda said that they were told that anyone who will clear the bill will be released to go home.
“We are also waiting for their results from the county government so we cannot release them because we don’t know their status,” Ogendo said on Thursday.
The patients appealed to Governor Hassan Joho to clear their bill so they can reunite with their families.
“What we know is that people who are supposed to pay the quarantine fee are those who were forcefully taken to the quarantine facility. We cooperated when we were being brought here because we knew the government will pay the bills," Amanda said.
Efforts to reach the Mombasa county commissioner Gilbert Kitiyo were futile, as calls and texts messages to his phone were unanswered.
Edited by P.O