Month: July 2020

01 Jul
By: CGK 0

UNDP AND UN VOLUNTEERS (UNV) PROGRAMME

It  was a pleasure and honor for Kajiado County to host, as well as witness, the flagging off of newly recruited health personnel (through the partnership of UNDP and UN Volunteers (UNV) programme) deployed to 14 counties including Kajiado County as part of UNDP’s continued support towards the fight of COVID-19 in the Country. The volunteers bring a range of skills and experience that will boost the fight against COVID-19 at the County level.

This support is crucial considering human resource for health is a crucial component in the fight against corona virus. As a County , therefore urge all our development partners to also consider supporting us by targeting human resource development measures including offering trainings to our staff, supply of personal protective equipment’s (PPEs), and even send  their staff to the health sector among other areas of support.

In the last 24 hours, we have received 14 new positives for COVID-19 disease in the County (as reported by the Ministry of Health). We note that 8 of these cases (6 health workers from Kajiado Central and 2 cases from Kajiado East) were processed in Namanga and we had already captured their details in our report of 30th June 2020. This brings the total new additional cases for today to be 6 and the cumulative confirmed positive cases for the County at 241 with 6 deaths.

Out of the 6 positive cases, 5 are from Kajiado North (2 are health care workers working in private facilities in Nairobi County, 3 are residents of Ongata Rongai, Kiserian, and Ngong and were tested privately).

Kajiado Central had 1 positive case from Kajiado town and a contact of a previous case.

The cumulative positives in the county are now distributed as follows:

Kajiado Central 133

Kajiado South 29

Kajiado East 41

Kajiado North 36

Kajiado West 2

The total number of positive cases who have reported successful recoveries from our treatment centres remains at 141. All our positive cases are stable and receiving treatment at our isolation and treatment facilities with some being placed on home based care. Contact tracing is ongoing.

Once again we note with a lot of concern the rate of health worker infection is on an upward trend. We continue to appeal to our health workers, continuously and in an appropriate manner, to strictly use the provided personal protective equipment’s (PPEs) as you offer various services to the public and also to note that there are possibilities of community transmission out of the environs of our health facilities.

In the next few days, we are rolling out another phase of trainings and capacity building to our health workers as well as initiate a programme of regular testing. These trainings will be geared towards Infection Prevention and Control measures as well as case management.

At the same time, we continue to congratulate all our frontline health workers who have been working extremely hard, with heroism, dedication and selflessness. We most sincerely acknowledge your efforts and may God richly bless you.

#Covid-19

#StaySafeStayHome

#KomeshaCorona

Easther Somoire, OGW

CECM Medical Services and Public Health

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01 Jul
By: CGK 0

FLAGGING OFF OF 50 UN VOLUNTEERS

Speech by H.E the Governor during the flagging off of 50 United Nations volunteers in support of the Kenyan Government’s National COVID 19 Response on July 1, 2020.

Devolution CAS, Hon. Abdul Bahari,

My colleague Governors and Deputy Governors present,

The United Nations family led by Resident Coordinator, Siddhart Chatterjee,

The UNDP Resident Representative, Walid Badawi,

My Brother, Devolution PS, Charles Sunkuli,

My sister, Health PS, Susan Mochache,

The County Assemblies Forum CEO, Judy Oduma,

Our Speaker, Hon Johnson Osoi.

Ladies and gentlemen;

I welcome you all to Kajiado County. Karibuni sana.

Bwana CAS: It is three and a half months now since our country’s index Covid-19 case was discovered in Ongata Rongai within my county. Also, for its unique geographical position, Kajiado remains the most of the high risk counties. We are sandwiched between our nation’s capital, Nairobi, the epi-centre of the spread of the virus, and a 700 km stretch of the Kenya-Tanzania boundary. Not only that, we border six other counties; Narok, Nakuru,Kiambu, Machakos, Makueni and Taita Taveta.

In a sense, therefore, we are the playground of cross border transmission. And it is so, both, locally and internationally.

Bwana CAS, therefore, it couldn’t have been more apt than to choose our county to be the launching pad of this important effort; an effort geared towards the fight against this marauding pandemic.

For us in Kajiado, we believe in a united front against this pandemic. I have had countless encounters and engagements with the Ministry of Health officials as we continue with this important war.

Therefore, today’s encounter with the Ministry of Devolution and ASALs is yet another indicator that this pandemic is not just a health matter. It is affecting our lives in so many ways that each and every one of us has a role to play to contain the virus.

Bwana CAS,

The tremendous negative impact of COVID 19 has effectively been devolved. The rising cases of intra-county, inter-county and inter-community transmissions clearly confirm that the virus is now with us; and is affecting our people’s lives in scales that we may take a while to recover from.

Seized of the dire need to set the pace in our preparedness to contain COVID 19, my Government has taken several measures:-

We have set up five isolation centres in our health facilities.

These are Kajiado Referral Hospital;

Kitengela Sub County Hospital; Ole Kasasi Health Centre; Namanga Health Centre and Oloitokitok Sub County Hospital.

We have set aside Ngong Sub County Hospital, Ng’atataek Health Centre and the KMTC Oloitokitok as COVID 19 Hospitals and Treatment Centres. In fact, health services that were being offered here have been referred to neighbouring facilities.

We now have 20 ICU beds in the county. Plans are under way to scale up this to 50 ICU beds.

We have just achieved the mandatory 300 beds capacity at our Isolation Centres. But owing to our unique situation as an emerging theatre of the virus transmission, we are set to have a total of 700 beds which are currently being made by our Vocational Training Centres(VTCs).

We have trained 720 health workers (or 60 %) of our health work force. We are looking for more support to train the remaining ones.

This pandemic has also re-awakened our creativity and innovation instincts.

To offer our people protective devices, our Vocational Training Centres started to manufacture face masks and sanitizers which we give free of charge to our residents. So far, we have made in excess of 100,000 masks and more than 5,000 litres of sanitizers.

Additionally, we have installed hand-washing facilities at all the main public places.

Ladies and gentlemen: This is just a snippet of what we have already done. We are doing much more on the ground going forward.

Bwana CAS,

The Health nightmare is not the only impact of COVID 19. We have experienced loss of livelihoods as the output of our economy shrinks.

Thousands of our people are now more food insecure than at any other time.

More than 30,000 households in my county are in dire need of relief food support. So far, we have only managed to assist 10,000 families.

My Government is implementing a digital food distribution programme. Let me tell you how it works.

The County Government through our national and county administrative grassroot structures identifies vulnerable cases. A specially generated PIN is sent to each beneficiary to their mobile phones via SMS. The message asks the beneficiary to present the PIN to a pre-selected retail outlet within a walking distance from their homes.

Meanwhile, the pre-selected retailer has an APP (M-Riziki) installed on his /her phone which is used to VERIFY the personal details of the beneficiary.

Once verified, the retailer hands over our pre-packed relief food hamper to the beneficiary.

This ICT-driven initiative, Bwana CAS, has the following benefits;

It reduces crowding and scramble for relief food in public places in this COVID 19 sensitive time.

It has restored the dignity of vulnerable people as they are not exposed to public ridicule when collecting food.

It has boosted the local economy as County Government buys relief food from local shops and pays immediately via MPESA.It has reduced logistical nightmares associated with physical food distribution.

It is highly accountable. Every transaction is digitally monitored and reported to the County Government’s back office system.

This digital distribution of relief food is working very well. I wish to invite our national and international friends to partner with us to reach more vulnerable households through this system.

Bwana CAS,

I wish to come to a close at this point. I look forward to receiving my county’s share of the UN Volunteers.

They are very welcome here and we look forward to working with them in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.

Thank you very much. God bless you all.

H.E JOSEPH OLE LENKU,

Governor, Kajiado County.

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