Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has called for the police to arrest Kenyans on social media for what he has termed as a Kenyans ‘making a mockery’ of the government efforts to combat the Coronavirus disease. This was after two recovered COVID-19 patients spoke to Kenyans for the first time and shared their stories on national television.
Speaking at a media briefing, CS Mutahi said that some Kenyans have deliberately decided to trivialize the government efforts and branding them a Public Relations exercise, instead of re-energizing efforts in raising alert levels.
“It is unpalatable, it is archaic and retrogressive for anybody to trivialize the lives of Kenyans, even one Kenyan, and I condemn in the strongest terms any person who would attempt to do so. I appeal to the media not to slight these matters and I appeal to our enforcement agencies to arrest social media abusers,” said CS Mutahi.
Many Kenyans have taken to social media to give their opinions on how the COVID-19 pandemic is being handled by the Kenyan government. While some have praised government efforts, some have expressed their scepticism of whether these efforts are effective.
Threats of the arrest of social media users is unconstitutional. Article 33 of the Kenyan Constitution guarantees every Kenyan’s freedom to express themselves as long as their utterances do not constitute hate speech, propaganda for war, incitement to violence and advocacy for hatered.
As of today, the number of Coronavirus cases have risen to 110. There have been 4 recoveries and 3 deaths.