No More Mandatory Wearing Of Face Masks In Public Spaces

In an announcement made by the Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on 11^th March 2022, Kenyans have a complete sigh of relief after the government finally drops the protocols set to combat the covid 19 pandemic in the country, including the compulsory wearing of face masks in the public.

According to Kagwe, there has been a lot of debate on the wearing of face masks around the country in open spaces. He, however, noted that despite the decision to lift the use of face masks in public, Kenyans are encouraged to use masks in indoor functions to curb the spread of Covid 19.

The mandatory wearing of face masks in open, public spaces is now lifted. All in-person indoor meetings to resume at full capacity of the venue as long as participants are vaccinated. All attendees should be encouraged to wear face masks’’ Said Kagwe.

Other services that have resumed fully include in-person worship, PSVs, trains, and domestic air freight services, provided all congregants, operators, and staff respectively have all been vaccinated.

“All in-person worship is to resume at full capacity as long as all the congregants and worshippers are vaccinated. The Interfaith Council is urged to develop protocols to facilitate the resumption of full congregational worship with full capacity of venues where all congregants are vaccinated,” he noted.

Kagwe stated that all quarantine of both the vaccinated and unvaccinated persons is to be stopped with immediate effect.

When the Pandemic first strike Kenya in 2020, the Kenyan government introduced a new law that required all citizens to wear face masks in public. Anyone who defied this was subject to arrest, with an additional penalty of 20,000 shillings, six months in jail, or both.

Most Kenyans however, have been adamant about wearing facemasks with a majority citing that the same was not being practiced by those in authority, especially politicians who have been holding huge rallies.