By SHARON MAOMBO

Thirty-two individuals have mysteriously disappeared from a quarantine facility in Elwak, Mandera County, the county government has revealed.

They were part of the 66 who were put on mandatory quarantine after two travellers tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

The two – a man and a woman – returned from Europe and stayed in Kilifi before proceeding to Mandera.

In a letter to the Deputy County Commissioner, an executive committee member, Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed cited a lack of seriousness by police officers in providing foolproof security to the quarantine centre as a possible motivation for escapees.

“It appears a few elements within the security system are yet to understand the seriousness of this campaign against coronavirus, he said.

The Deputy County Commissioner has been asked, as the chairman of the Sub County Security Coordination, to explain how negligence by the officers may have contributed to the development.

He is also to provide assurance that the 34 who are still in the centre will remain quarantined until full exhaustion of the required period.

The 66 who were placed on isolation included 61 passengers who travelled on the same bus as the two confirmed patients.

They were aboard the Makka Bus on March 31 from Nairobi and arrived in Mandera on April 1 without knowledge of carriers of the virus amidst them.

The bus was intercepted at Elwak town in Mandera South after arriving at about 8pm.

The patients’ relatives and the two clinicians who attended to them at a private facility were also quarantined.

The driver of the bus has since been arrested transporting passengers from Nairobi, contrary to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cessation of movement directive.

Uhuru banned movement into and out of Nairobi, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties, where majority of cases of the virus has been confirmed.

Source: The Star