Kenya’s COVID-19 fight gets boost from seized funds

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya’s battle against the novel coronavirus received a boost Tuesday when its emergency fund to fight the pandemic received millions of dollars seized in anti-graft operations.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions donated 2 billion Kenyan shillings (around $19 million) to the country’s coronavirus emergency fund.

Kenya’s Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji handed Treasury Secretary Ukur Yatani the check, which he noted came from money that his office had seized from corrupt dealings in the past two years.

“We had some funds jointly as the multi-agency task force that works on corruption that we had collected with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission. We had roughly 2.9 billion shillings collected over the last two months. We have allocated 2 billion shillings towards the COVID-19 emergency fund to combat the pandemic,” Haji said.

This comes as Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe announced Tuesday that the country’s coronavirus cases had risen to 172 after 14 more cases were recorded out of 696 people who were tested in 24 hours.

“Fellow Kenyans, let us brace ourselves for bad news. Let us be ready because all the measures that we will take will not end the disease abruptly,” Kagwe said.

According to the Health Ministry, only one person is in critical condition.

President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a mandatory cessation of inter-county movement between four main counties out of the 47 that make up the country.

Kenya’s capital Nairobi and the coastal cities of Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale have been partially locked down for three weeks.