Confusion reigned in Embu over the identity of a prisoner who was confirmed as the first Covid-19 case in the county.
After the news broke, social media was awash with claims he was the Tharaka Nithi man who was this month arrested after allegedly putting pepper and sand in his wife’s genitals for alleged infidelity. He applied glue to the genitals, her mouth and ears.
However, Tharaka Nithi county commissioner Beverly Opwora and Embu Governor Martin Wambora dismissed the reports, noting that the convict who was confirmed positive was indeed from Tharaka Nithi but was a different person.
“I can assure you it’s not Kifo. This is somebody who has been there (Embu GK Prrison) since the 4th of this month. He committed an offence in March and he was presented before court which convicted him on the 4th of May and therefore he was imprisoned in Embu prison,” Opwora said on phone.
Wambora said the prisoner came to Embu on May 4 after being convicted of murder by the High Court in Chuka. Convicts of serious crimes are given priority in bigger prisons, he said.
Wambora said the convict was a young man of 20 years but he was asymptomatic. He agreed with the Health CS that instead of him being quarantined and treated at the Embu Level 5 Teaching and Referral Hospital he should be returned to the prison where he could be isolated in a separate cell.
He added that a team had been appointed to trace the prisoner's contacts before and after arrest, conviction and his stay at Embu prison.
Wambora said his county was doing fairly well to prevent spread of the virus, noting this was an imported case.
He further said he would not accept cases to be taken to Embu hospitals. He would instruct his officers to find a separate facility for them.
Edited by Henry Makori
