The number of people who have been arrested and placed under forced quarantine in Garissa town has now risen to 46 after 15 more were arrested Tuesday.
Addressing the press in his office, North Eastern region commissioner Nicodemus Ndalana said a Nissan matatu from Al-Wahim express shuttle was impounded at Garissa–Mombasa junction by traffic police officers with 8 passengers who were allegedly coming from Lamu en-route to different parts of Central and Rift valley region.
It’s however not clear whether the passengers were from Lamu or may have come from any of the three counties of Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale that are under cessation and hired the Nissan to ferry them.
Ndalana also said 7 passengers aboard two private cars, a Toyota Harrier and Toyota Isis suspected to have come from Nairobi to Garissa were arrested at the Tana Bridge.
He warned all those trying to use unorthodox means to enter Garissa or any of the other two counties of Wajir and Mandera that the security officers are on high alert and they will not make it through.
The administrator said that his office is in talks with NTSA to have licenses of all PSV vehicles defying government guidelines suspended.
President Uhuru Kenyatta restricted movement in and out of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties as part of wider measures by the government to limit the spread of the deadly Covid-19.
Despite the arrests and being placed under forced quarantine, more and more Kenyans continue to use all manner of tricks to sneak out of these counties to their rural counties putting their family members at risk of contracting the virus that had claimed the lives of 170,439 and infected 2,425,000 in 177 countries across the globe as at Tuesday April 21, 2020.
Yesterday evening, a bus christened Emirates was nabbed at the Tana bridge screening centre with 27 passengers who were picked from Mwingi after reportedly being dropped off by saloon cars from Nairobi.
On Sunday at around midnight 4 people in a salon car were arrested bringing the total number of person under forced quarantine to 46 in three days.
The victims are under forced quarantined at Garissa high school at their own cost.
By Jacob Songok
