State to set up testing facility at Namanga border point

The government has raised concerns over the new Covid-19 cases being reported in counties bordering Tanzania.

Health CAS Rashid Aman said on Saturday that four of the 28 new confirmed cases were linked to the neighbouring country. The government has called upon the Kajiado and Migori county leadership to ensure surveillance and screening procedures are adhered to.

He, however, added that the government has stepped up its efforts to contain the situation by constructing a testing facility at the Namanga border point.

Aman said the facility will also solve the high demand for testing among truck drivers. The Ministry of Health will collaborate with the county government of Kajiado to build the facility.

On Thursday, two of 25 confirmed cases were from Kajiado.

The Kajiado government released information explaining how the two new cases came about.

In its report, it was established that they had travelled to Tanzania before returning home.

County Health executive Esther Somoire said the two were picked from the county’s quarantine facilities in Namanga and Kajiado towns.

"A 36-year-old male Kenyan veterinary doctor working with the East African Community who had stayed in Arusha for two weeks and used panya routes to get entry to Kenya, was arrested at the Isinya roadblock by immigration officers," Somoire said.

The second person was a 37-year-old female Kenyan who left the UK on December 16, 2019 for Zanzibar, Tanzania, where she stayed for one week before travelling to Kenya.