ATHI RIVER RESIDENTS AFRAID

Two forcibly quarantined after man flew in from Qatar

Police and health officials removed them from their home in Athi River

In Summary

•Musau said he visited a barber shop in Nairobi after he returned to the country from Qatar

•Residents informed local administrators that brother and sister lived in Great Wall Garden apartments

Great Wall Gardens apartments in Athi River, Machakos county on Thursday, March 26
Great Wall Gardens apartments in Athi River, Machakos county on Thursday, March 26
Image: GEORGE OWITI

 

Residents of Great Wall Gardens apartments in Athi River are living in fear after a woman and her brother were removed from the premises and forcibly quarantined.

They were evacuated from their rented house on Tuesday.

Residents who spoke to the Star said their fears arose from the fact that they didn’t know whom the two interacted with since Richard Makau flew into the country from Qatar on March 17.

Makau was evacuated by local administrators from his sister Mercy’s house on the third floor of the Great Wall Gardens Phase 1, Block B in Athi River, Machakos county.

Athi River deputy county commissioner David Juma said the duo was self-quarantined at the Continental Hotel in Mlolongo town for 14 days.

“We took the initiative to evacuate the two from the apartment following a tip-off from members of the public after we got information that Musau had come from overseas,” Juma told the Star.

Mavoko chief Nzau Komo and assistant chiefs led members of Nyumba Kumi in finding who the two were and the exact house in which they lived following directives from the deputy county commissioner.

“We initially got information that there was one Mercy who lives at Great Wall Gardens Apartment and had traveled from outside the country. When we got the apartment's management office, I ordered that all tenants called Mercy to be brought to us. Mercy Makau said she was not the one who had traveled from overseas but her brother,” Nzau said.

The administrator said the woman produced her brother Richard Musau who admitted he had arrived from Qatar on March 17.

He said Musau said that he was a flight attendant at an airline in Qatar.

 

Musau said he had put himself in self-isolation but once left the apartments to go to Nairobi for a haircut.

Other sources told the Star Musau had been seen around since he flew in to the country on March 17.

The two were taken to the hotel by public health officers and police.

Juma said more people had been put under self-quarantine at Continental and Hilton Gardens hotels in Athi River subcounty.

Edited by Henry Makori

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