Bondo court cuts operations after police officers get Covid-19

Bondo Law Courts has scaled down its operations as it awaits directives from the Judiciary headquarters in Nairobi  on its possible shutdown.

The courts did not open on Monday so matters that had been scheduled for mentioning, hearing or ruling were not handled.

Principal Magistrate John Paul Nandi told the Nation on Tuesday that the decision to scale down operations arose from rising numbers of Covid-19 cases reported within the police service in the area.

"We  interact on a daily basis with the police officers so the rising numbers are a concern,” he explained.

OFFICERS SICK

Sixteen people who tested positive for the virus are in isolation wards at Ambira Sub-county Hospital.

The Nation established on Tuesday that three of them were police officers from the Bondo station while two were from Rarieda Sub-county.

It is believed they were the primary contacts of the late Bondo OCPD Antony Wafula who succumbed to Covid-19 last Tuesday.

The Nation further established that a total of 96 police officers had been tested by the end of last week.

CASELOAD

Siaya County has reported 54 cases of the virus since March, when the disease was first confirmed in Kenya.

According to the latest Covid-19 situation report, Bondo has the 24 cases, the highest number in the county.

Ugenya and Alego-Usonga sub-counties have nine cases each , Rarieda and Gem have five each and Ugunja one.

Nineteen of the new patients had travelled outside the county, with Nairobi contributing the highest number of cases at 11 , followed by Mombasa at four, Migori two and Eldoret and Tanzania one case each .

The rest of the 35 cases were due to local transmissions, according to the report.

Cumulatively, Siaya has tested 4, 040 samples and traced 434 contacts. Of these, 384 have been discharged from care facilities and put on mandatory quarantine while 42 are on self-quarantine.