Rights body calls out police on curfew enforcement as Covid deaths cross 2,500
Amnesty International Kenya has condemned the manner in which the police have enforced curfew restrictions, especially the move to block major roads in Nairobi at 8pm.
According to the rights group, the irregular and disproportionate treatment of Kenyans witnessed last weekend points to the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
“By law, all government action must be based on written law; be necessary and proportionate, and must pursue a legitimate aim. The blockade was unnecessary and disproportionate and thus illegal,” said Demas Kiprono, Amnesty Kenya campaign manager for freedoms.
The blocking of Thika Road and Waiyaki Way by the police saw motorists spend the better part of the night stuck in traffic. A number of people suffered as they were unable to access hospitals for emergency medical care.
Read also: Covid positivity eases to 9.6 per cent as 20 patients succumb
On Monday, April 19, two police officers were injured, one seriously, after a lorry rammed a police vehicle at a barricade set up at the GSU area on Thika Road during curfew time.
This has seen the rights group ask the Ministry of Health to review proposed enforcement methods of the 8pm – 4am curfew in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has announced a 10.8 per cent Covid-19 positivity rate in the last 24-hour period after 629 people tested positive from a sample size of 5,832.
The new infections bring the total number of cases in Kenya to 152,523 and the cumulative tests to over 1.6 million since the pandemic struck last March.
According to the Ministry of Health, 18 new fatalities have been recorded, bringing the total number of deaths to 2,519. Two of the new deaths occurred within the last 24 hours, eight within the last month, and eight others were late death reports that occurred on different dates after facility record audits.
However,1 ,560 recoveries have been reported bringing the country’s total recoveries to 103,838. Currently, there are 1,527 patients are admitted to various health facilities across the country.
