On April 28, Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya called on the national government to close the Kenya-Tanzania border at Lunga Lunga to contain the spread of Covid-19.
This was after the county registered a second case of the virus of a Kenyan woman who travelled from Dar-es-Salaam on April 23.
Mvurya said it will be impossible to control the spread of the disease if activities at the border went on as usual.
“The second patient came from our neighbouring country although she is our resident. It tells us a lot that things are not good on the other side too, hence, the need to consider closing the border if we are to properly contain the virus,” he said.
Tanzania has so far recorded 508 positive cases and 21 deaths, although it has not been promptly announcing its numbers.
Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli has also been defiant and defiant in handling the cases.
He was conspicuously missing for the second time in a Covid-19 meeting convened by the East African Community Heads of State members on Tuesday.
Only Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda) and Salva Kiir (South Sudan) were present in the virtual meeting.
His continued absence has raised eyebrows even as Magufuli continues to downplay the rise of coronavirus cases in his country.
Somalia, on the other hand, has recorded 1,284 and 53 deaths. Matters have become worse after reports indicated that traders in Lamu were still trading with their Somalia counterparts.
There were also Kenyans in Mandera who are sneaking to Somalia to perform nightly prayers.
Government officials were also looking out for the trend in border counties such a Wajir and Garissa.
Wajir has reported two imported Covid-19 cases from Somalia.
The two traders from Garissa had travelled for a livestock trading trip before they were intercepted by security agencies in Diff, at the Kenya-Somalia border, on their way back to Kenya.
The Council of Governors had in early May also urged the government to close some international borders as part of efforts to contain the Covid-19 disease.
The council raised concerns about the migration of people from Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia amid rising cases of local transmission of the virus and the importation of some cases.
Chairman Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) on May 6 noted that in the past week, nine counties that border other countries quarantined at 205 people and tested 249 for the disease.
Governor Oparanya urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to come up with a protocol for dealing with neighbouring countries, that will only allow limited access, if any, in order to contain the disease.
