Truck drivers without Covid-19 certificates will not be allowed to enter Makueni county.
"We don't intend to stigmatise them but because it is a directive from the national government, we will have to enforce it," Governor Kivutha Kibwana told reporters at the county headquarters in Wote town on Tuesday.
Kibwana spoke after the announcement of new regulations by the County Covid-19 Emergency Response Committee which he co-chairs with county commissioner Maalim Mohammed.
The governor said truckers and other essential service providers using the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway must produce certificates showing they have been tested and free of coronavirus.
"Drivers who flout the directive will be sent back to where they came from because we don't want to risk the health of our people."
Makueni, as of Tuesday, had 11 Covid-19 cases.
Nine of them, according to the county Health department, are hoteliers from Kibwezi and Makindu townships. They are among those who had applied for Covid-19 test to get permits for reopening their businesses.
Kibwana said Makueni was at the highest risk of exposure since close to 240km of the Nairobi-Mombasa Highway are in the county.
Nairobi and Mombasa are on partial lock down after recording high infections. Nairobi leads with 3,031 followed by Mombasa with 1,445 as of Monday.
Mohammed said the committee will prepare three parking and resting places for authorised drivers along the stretch.
He cautioned residents against entering into Makueni from counties under lockdown.
"Movement of people into Makueni from counties on lockdown remains restricted until when the government will open those counties," he said.
The administrator said 24 people who had travelled from Mombasa in a 36-seater matatu had been arrested.
The matatu was intercepted at Mukuyuni market along the Wote-Machakos Road on Monday.
"We will have all of them quarantined at Makindu Medical Training Centre," he said.
Makueni county has two checkpoints along the Mombasa–Nairobi Highway at Kibwezi and Mtito-Andei.
Edited by EKibii
