City Hall Nairobi

The headquarters of the Nairobi County Government, located along City Hall Way, as pictured on December 21, 2020.

| Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group

Alarm as five City Hall staff die of Covid-19 in one day

The Covid-19 third wave has hit City Hall hard with five employees losing their lives on Saturday alone due to complications arising from the disease.

The workers had been receiving treatment at various hospitals across the county after contracting the deadly virus, nation.africa has learnt.

They include an employee in the prosecution office under the legal department, a county gym instructor at the City Stadium working under the social services department, an employee at the Rates office, another staff member at the Valuation department and a driver.

Nation has omitted their names for legal and ethical reasons.

The multiple deaths of the county employees forced Deputy Governor Ann Kananu to close all offices offering non-essential services for 30 days to contain further spread of the virus.

"The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has been escalating and has proven severe leading to loss of lives of County Staff, family and friends. It is important to note that we consider the safety of our employees and customers as core to our operations. It is in this regard that we need to consider reviewing our work environment and daily interactions," said Ms Kananu in her statement announcing the closure on Sunday.

Nairobi Deputy Governor Ann Kananu addresses journalists at City Hall in Nairobi on January 18, 2021.

Photo credit: Evans Habil | Nation Media Group

The shutdown order, which began today (Monday), leaves only offices offering critical and essential services to continue operating uninterrupted.

The services include health, disaster management and coordination (firefighters), revenue collection services, water, environment and sanitation, finance and economic planning, procurement and supply chain services, security services as well as public communications and customer service.

“This is a carefully considered measure to help in curtailing the spread of the deadly Covid-19 infections witnessed in recent days,” said Ms Kananu.

A spot check by the nation.africa revealed that there were no sanitisers or handwashing points at the entrance of City Hall.

Spraying booth

A spraying booth that had been installed at the entrance last year has been broken down for several months now.

However, long queues at the Rates and Cash offices by Nairobi residents paying for various services is still the order of the day with no social distancing.

Even at the two offices, there were no sanitisers or water for washing hands.

“The fumigation of offices that used to happen last year is no longer there. No masks are provided yet one has to report to work. Fumigation has been commercialised,” lamented a senior employee who sought anonymity.

According to the staff, interns working under the Kazi Mtaani would spray City Hall but left due to payment disputes.

Since then, health protocols are not being adhered to at the county government with offices still full of people.

“It only became a concern when the five employees died on Saturday since they were working in very sensitive offices. How many people have the five infected?” posed the employee.

Regular fumigations

There have been sustained calls by senior staff for the return of regular fumigation amid an increase in positive cases.

President Uhuru Kenyatta. 

Photo credit: PSCU

Requests for people to work from home or work in shifts and limit access to City Hall by outsiders or completely locking down the county government for two weeks to curb the spread of the virus have fallen on deaf ears.

“There is a time a member of staff who had tested positive he had to be dragged out of office as he insisted on coming to work despite being Covid-19 positive,” said the staff member.

Since the third wave, which has been described as a “more aggressive, non-discriminatory strain”, began, the daily Covid-19 cases have been averaging around 1,300, with Friday recording the highest number (2,008) in the history of the pandemic in Kenya.

As of Sunday, 2,117 deaths had been reported in Kenya since the beginning of the pandemic, with more than 40 deaths occurring in the last week alone.

According to the Health ministry, Nairobi and Mombasa counties continue to have the highest attack rates of Covid-19 at 1363.7 and 818.1 per 100,000 people, respectively when compared to 271.9/100,000 for the whole country.

Nairobi, Mombasa, Kiambu, Nakuru and Kajiado lead in the number of Covid-19 cases so far reported, with Nairobi accounting for 46 per cent (over 58,600 cases) of all cases which have been reported in Kenya.

Last week Friday, four of the counties above with exception of Mombasa were declared a “disease-infested zone” with movements into and out of the areas restricted.

This follows the imposition of a new lockdown by President Uhuru Kenyatta to combat a spike in new coronavirus infections.

All gatherings and in-person meetings have been banned, curfew time moved to 8pm, alcohol sales in bars in the zone banned and restaurants are only allowed to provide takeaway services.

This is in addition to the suspension of all face-to-face teaching, meetings by county assemblies and offices asked to encourage their staff to work from home except in special circumstances.

In the intervening week, Kenya recorded between 1,000 and 1,500 cases per day with experts warning that the peak of the third wave is expected in the next 30 days, with more than 2,500 to 3,000 cases per day likely to be witnessed.