Panic In Kenyan Prisons As 31 Inmates Test Positive For COVID-19

The Kenya Prisons Service Commissioner-General Wycliffe Ogallo has raised concerns over the rate at which inmates in various prisons across the country are testing positive for Covid-19.

General Wycliffe’s concerns come after the Nairobi County Emergency Response Team evacuated 31 prisoners from the Nairobi remand and Allocation prison after they tested positive for the viral disease.

General Wycliffe, who wrote to media houses, expressed concern that a total of 31 samples out of the 59 samples tested for COVID-19 had turned out positive for the disease.

According to General Wycliffe Ogallo, the prisoners had just come to an end of 21 days of quarantine when they were tested for COVID-19 adding that the Kenya Prisons Service was doing it’s best to deal with the situation.

“As we fight against the Covid-19 virus the Kenya Prison Service (KPS) continues to take appropriate preventive measures to stop the spread of the virus across all the 129 correctional facilities across the country,” General Wycliffe wrote.

All the 31 prisoners that had tested positive for COVID-19 are from Nairobi according to General Wycliffe of the Kenya prisons and had been since transferred to various hospitals across the country for the cases to be managed.

General Wycliffe Ogallo said in the statement made after 31 prisoners tested positive that the Kenya Prisons was still looking at measures to curb the virus spread among the prisoners so as to protect their lives.

The government had earlier released 11,000 petty offenders and convicts who had served their jail terms fully.

Kenya currently has 1,962 confirmed COVID-19 cases after 74 new cases were registered on 31st of May 2020 according to the Ministry of Health with 78,536 samples having been tested since the first case was reported on 13th March 2020.

Slums such as Mathare and Kibra are most hit in Nairobi while prisons are marked as a hotspot that saw the government suspect prison visits while in Mombasa, OldTown has been hardest hit.

By today, 30 counties have reported COVID-19 cases with Laikipia reporting its very first case today according to the Ministry of Health.

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