Just hours after issuing a twitter thread that aimed at exposing government’s failure in giving Kenyans factual information on coronavirus status in the country, Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie found himself in trouble.
24 hours after his outburst, the tanga tanga lawmaker was summoned to Kabete DCI offices, where he was forced to issue a lengthy clarification on his social media post.
Kiarie had on Saturday night made a statement where he insinuated that over 7,000 people were under quarantine, a figure that was interpreted to mean the patients were bundled up in few quarantine centers.
In his clarification, however, he pointed out that the 7,000 figure represented the number of people who were supposedly on self-quarantine after jetting into the country within a certain time period.
“As a law-abiding citizen, I presented myself to the Dagoretti Division Police Headquarters, to honour summons to appear at the DCIO office.
“I responded to the concerns of the government on my publications regarding the COVID 19 situation in Kenya. Two issues were raised; on the 7,000 figure and the 10,000 projection of infections by May to which I responded,” he explained.
“I allayed any fears that I meant the 7,000 were held in Lenana School. As they noted, in my post, the figure was the number of Kenyans who landed in the country since the onset of this calamity, who should be in quarantine, which in itself is a very conservative estimate,” Kiarie clarified.
In the 10,000 figure, he claimed that his projection was backed up by scientific research largely concerning other first world countries that the virus spread faster injuring their economies. The countries in question are Italy and the United States.
” On the projections of 10,000 infected cases by May, I base the figure on a scientific extrapolation published by esteemed scientific researchers in the publication “PROJECTION OF EARLY SPREAD OF COVID 19 IN AFRICA AS OF MARCH 2020” by Carl A.B. Pearson (LSHTM, SACEMA; mailto:carl.pearson@lshtm.ac.uk) Cari Van Schalkwyk (SACEMA) Anna Foss (LSHTM) Kathleen O’Reilly (LSHTM) SACEMA’s Modelling and Analysis Response Team (SMART) CMMID COVID19 working group (LSHTM) Juliet Pulliam (SACEMA),” he said.
He also noted that most parts of his earlier post were a wake-up call to all Kenyans to be prepared as the virus spread did not show any sign of slowing down.
“I continue to urge Kenyans to wash their hands, sanitise as much as they can, observe social distancing, self-quarantine and adhere to the government curfew.
“I have raised all the matters I posted extensively as a Member of Parliament through the “appropriate” channels and also on social media as a private citizen,” he added.
His sentiments on Sunday had raised Health CS Mutahi Kagwe’s eyebrows who, in his presser the same day, condemned Kiarie’s utterances stating that the MP was spreading false information.
“It is really wrong and disheartening for those in leadership to continue perpetuating false information that has got nothing to do with the real cases,” lamented Kagwe.
Watch the video below.
