Police officers launched a manhunt for a woman who reportedly disappeared with a child after exhibiting coronavirus-like symptoms.
According to a report by Business Daily, the woman escaped from Out Span Hospital in Nyeri on Saturday with her seven-year-old child in tow.
Confirming the incident, Central Regional Commissioner Wilfred Nyangagwa disclosed that the police were carrying out investigations and the case had been classified as a criminal.
The woman had reportedly arrived in the country recently and she took off from the hospital after staff took too long to attend to her.
“Up to now we are tracking this woman, in fact, it is now a criminal offense and once we arrest her we will confine her and her child to an isolation ward,” Nyangagwa told the press.
He further revealed that two more people who had allegedly arrived in the country from abroad were forcefully quarantined in Murang’a and Kiambu counties after failing to observe self-isolation.
The commissioner appealed to Kenyans to hand over more people suspected to have recently traveled abroad.
As the woman’s case is classified as a criminal, she is starring at a Ksh30,000 fine or a 3-year prison sentence, or both, if found guilty.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), In a statement on Monday, March 23, also noted that any individual who sells any item be it beddings or any other item that goes on to infect others is also liable, adding that it was the onus of each individual to ensure all their wares were disinfected and pathogen-free.
“Any person who – while suffering from any infectious disease, willfully exposes himself without proper precautions against spreading the said disease in any street, public place, shop, inn, or enters any public conveyance without previously notifying the owner, conductor or driver thereof that he is so suffering, shall be guilty of an offense and liable to a fine not exceeding thirty thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or to both…
“…and a person who, while suffering from any such disease, enters any public conveyance without previously notifying the owner or driver that he is so suffering shall, in addition, be ordered by the court to pay such owner and driver the amount of any loss and expenses they may incur in carrying into effect the provisions of this Act with respect to disinfection of the conveyance,” reads an excerpt of Chapter 242 of the Public Health Act.
