World Desk: Kenyans filmed escaping from a coronavirus quarantine centre will be hunted down and sent back there, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.
“We know you and we will find you,” he said, adding that the escapees were putting the lives of others at risk.
The warning came after a video clip went viral showing several people scaling a wall to flee a quarantine centre in the capital, Nairobi.
Those in forced quarantine have been complaining about poor conditions.
They say some centres are not much better than prisons, with poor hygiene and complaints that social distancing is impossible because of overcrowding.
Others are angered about having to pay for their confinement, which costs between 20 (£16) and $100 a night – depending on the centre.
‘I fear forced quarantine as much as coronavirus’ Hostels at schools and universities as well as hotels have been used to hold those put into quarantine for an initial 14-day period – though this has been extended twice at some centres.
More than 400 people are currently in quarantine. They include people who arrived in the East African country from areas affected by the virus before it closed its borders and those found to have been in contact with a coronavirus patient.
It is not clear how many individuals escaped from quarantine at the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) but some reports put the number at 50.
The breakout took place on Tuesday as a meal was being served. The centre’s residents had a chance to escape when it started to rain and the guards took cover, Kenya’s Citizen TV station reports.
According to the paper, the KMTC centre has more than 200 people in quarantine – held as a consequence of contact tracing or after being arrested for flouting the curfew and social distancing rules.
The country has not gone into lockdown, but has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a ban on travel to or from Nairobi and several other areas considered hotspots for transmission.
