Turkana Deputy Governor Peter Lotethiro on Monday confirmed the county's first Covid-19 case at the Kakuma Refugee Camp.
Letethiro said on May 24, Turkana County became the 29th county in Kenya to report a positive case.
“We can confirm that a 32-year-old, Somali national residing in Kenya as a registered refugee at Kakuma Camp tested positive for SARS-2virus, which causes Covid-19,” he said.
Lotethiro spoke to the press at Lodwar County headquarters after Chief Administrative Secretary Mercy Mwangangi announced Turkana's new case.
He said the patient travelled from Kakuma Refugee Camp to Nairobi allegedly to 'evacuate' his sister, a 31-year-old woman who had a one and half-year-old child in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
He said the Somali national managed to travel to Nairobi to sneak his sister from Eastleigh, Nairobi and travelled to Kakuma on May 10.
He said the patient had hired a taxi that travelled to Eldoret via the Mai Mahiu route and eventually made it to Lodwar via Kainuk on the night of May 12.
“On the same night, the taxi traveled to Kakuma and was intercepted at a roadblock in Lokore a short distance away from Kakuma town. They were questioned by the security officers where they claimed to have taken the child to the hospital in Lodwar and Kitale, and were, therefore, returning home,” Lotethiro said.
He said security officers got suspicious and immediately alerted the public health team as they escorted the occupants of the vehicle to quarantine at the Kakuma Isolation Centre.
Lotethiro said after a check was done at the Lodwar county referral hospital for the verification of the story given earlier, it was discovered that they were not truthful.
“On May 15, with the help of the county security team it was found out that the patient had actually travelled from Eastleigh. As they continued with quarantine and observation, samples were collected from them and other 22 people who had come into contact with them on May 22,” he said.
Lotethiro said on May 23, the sample for the patient sent to MTRH came back positive for Covid-19, while other 21 other that were sent together were negative.
“Upon receipt of the information, our county health teams in collaboration with UNHCR and IRC refugee hospital management moved the confirmed case from the quarantine facility to an isolation facility,” he said.
