• The conference was to take place between August 23 and August 26 at Makueni Boys High School.
•The conference had earlier been scheduled for May 3 to May 7, 2021 but was postponed due to the Covid situation in the country.
The 7th Annual Devolution Conference has been postponed following an advisory by the Health ministry over Covid-19 concerns.
The conference was to take place between August 23 and August 26 at Makueni Boys High School.
This was the second time the forum was being postponed. Initially, the conference had been scheduled for May 3 to May 7, 2021, but it was postponed due to the Covid-19 situation.
Council of Governors chairman Martin Wambora in a statement on Thursday said the postponement was in line with the presidential directive issued on Wednesday suspending all public gatherings and in-person meetings.
“The steering committee shall communicate the new dates in due course,” he said.
“We must appreciate that we are living in unprecedented times which require all of us to put our health first and that of others for the safety and prosperity of our country.”
In a letter to Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, acting health director-general Patrick Amoth expressed concerns about holding a conference of such magnitude at a time when the country is battling with Covid-19.
Amoth said the surge in cases in July and August was aided by social and public gatherings held in the preceding months.
Amoth said Makueni has an inactive 300-bed Covid-19 isolation centre, leaving only Makueni County Referral Hospital with 13 regular beds and one ICU bed as the Covid-19 management facility in the county.
He said since the onset of the pandemic, Makueni has recorded 1,292 cases, with only 5,096 out of the targeted 584,379 people in the county being fully vaccinated.
“The neighbouring counties of Machakos and Kajiado have equally been reporting a surge in the number of Covid cases. Both have limited infrastructural health capacity. The county is therefore ill-prepared to host a meeting of this public magnitude,” Amoth said.
Edited by A.N