It was not my wish to lock down the five counties, President Kenyatta

By Mourice Seretta

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said that it was not his wish to lockdown five counties so as to curb the spread of the Covid-19.

Addressing the nation from statehouse Nairobi on Thursday, the Head of State who was flanked by ODM leader Raila Odinga said that it was the decision of health experts who said that the only way to curb the rising spread of the dangerous virus.

READ ALSO: Uhuru, Raila inspect Green Park Bus Terminus in Nairobi

He said that if the country is to stem this virus from continuing to grow from killing people the only thing the Government was to do is to lock down.

“Infact if we had gone by their extreme measures, they had wanted us to lock down the whole country. As to when these measures will be removed and we can go back to normal which is our prayer every single day depends on how we are able to flatten this curve.” The President said.

President Kenyatta said he looks forward to a time when the rising curve of Covid-19 comes down to below 5% so that the country opens up.

“Fellow Kenyans I Know it is difficult but we cannot pretend this disease is not with us, we cannot ignore the advice that we are getting from the WHO,CDC Africa and our own experts that the only way to save lives is to take the measures that we have taken. We have not locked down the country, we have locked down specific areas that have been identified by our experts as super spreaders. We have not locked down the economy,” President Kenyatta said.

He urged Kenyans to continue observing the Ministry of Health Covid-19 protocols so as to ensure the spread is curbed and the curve flattened.

“Please, stay safe for yourself, stay safe for your relatives, stay safe for your neighbors especially during this Easter holiday,” the President said.

He asked the nation to recognize that this lockdown is very different from the last lockdown.

“The last lockdown we had to lock down the entire country,” President Kenyatta explained on why the government t is yet to economically cushion Kenyans after lockdown.

On vaccination, President Kenyatta said that nobody who has gotten their first dose of the vaccine will miss a second dose.

The President thanked God for the good health Raila was enjoying now after being diagnosed with Covd-19 weeks ago.

On his part, Raila said he was not able to tell how he contracted the virus. He said he is now out of danger and urges Kenyans to follow the laid down health protocols to ensure that they do not get infected and help in curbing the spread.

He also urged the public to go for the vaccines.

“I’m going to personally arrange to do a public vaccination so that people can see that I have confidence in the process…” Raila said.

Earlier on, the two inspected a number of national projects in the city and its outskirts.

The two made an impromptu inspection tour of the Green Park Bus Terminus on Haile Selassie Avenue in Nairobi.

They later moved to officially opening the 4.2km access road connecting the Nairobi Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Southern By-pass near Wilson Airport.