Oparanya asks governors to benchmark for Covid-19 preparedness in Kiambu
Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya has described Kiambu county government as a model county worth emulating in the fight against Covid-19.
He heaped praises to area county boss Dr.James Nyoro for surpassing the 300 Covid-19 isolation and treatment bed capacity and challenged other governors to consider touring Kiambu and benchmark.
The chairman who was flanked by Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, Dr. Nyoro, and a host of senior government officials spoke after touring Wangige and Tigoni level 4 hospitals in Kabete and Limuru respectively.
"As you all know, Kiambu neighbors Nairobi and hence should have big health facilities and I am impressed by governor Nyoro's efforts towards realizing this," he said.
The two facilities with close to 350-bed capacity have been rehabilitated to accommodate Covid-19 patients with Tigoni being specially set aside strictly for Coronavirus disease cases only.
Oparanya, also the Kakamega governor revealed that only 15 out of the 47 counties in the country had reached the 300-bed capacity threshold.
CS Wamalwa said that Kiambu county is a shining example of devolution due to the impactful steps it has taken towards general development.
Challenging county bosses to move with speed and meet the 300-bed threshold, expressed his disappointments that some countries had less than 20 beds.
"Meeting the threshold will inform the President's decision on whether to open the economy or not during his address to the nation next week on Monday," he said.
An elated Nyoro once again beseeched his counterparts in the country to fast track their county's levels of preparedness towards containing and controlling Covid-19.
He said that unless respective counties hasten to put up the beds for isolating Covid-19 patients, the current partial lockdown will continue indefinitely.
Nyoro said failure by most counties to meet the threshold had negatively impacted on not only the economy of the entire country but also on counties that have met the same.
"We are all aware that President Uhuru Kenyatta has persistently told us that the decision to reopen the country's economy will be informed by the level of preparedness by counties to respond to the Covid-19 scourge," he said.
He said that Kiambu county has met most of the requirements set by the government adding that it already has 300 beds capacity and 200 more will be ready in a week's time.
The governor said that it should dawn on every Kenyan citizen and the world at large that Covid-19 is here to stay and consequently learn how to live with it.
"Covid-19 is here with us and what remains is to learn the ropes and live with it otherwise it will eliminate both the innocent and the font cares," he reiterated.
Nyoro at the same time emphasized that the county Covid-19 Emergency Fund team had come up with the 'Adopt a Village Feed a Family' philosophy which has since been embraced by hundreds of well-wishers.
He said that those who have embraced the philosophy had committed to feeding the vulnerable for three months adding that his administration will adopt the philosophy in the future with a view of transforming villages and empower families
"We have identified 600 cluster villages and also identified needy and vulnerable families across the county and we shall borrow a leaf from the above-mentioned philosophy in the future and engage our people in initiating income-generating activities," he said.
