Category: LOCAL

The Bar, Hotels, and Liquor Traders Association (BAHLITA) has pledged to abide by government protocols directing that those yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19 be denied access to services in public places.

BAHLITA, in press address on Friday led by Chairman Simon Njoroge, however, requested the government to implement better ways for clients to show proof of vaccination before entering the premises.

The association cited, for instance, an app that can digitally show if one has been vaccinated or not by keying in their phone numbers, rather than asking customers to show their certificates.

“The Ministry of Health sent a memo saying that anybody who comes to our premises at least should show a certificate that they have been vaccinated. As BAHLITA, we do not fight with that, we are here to say that we respect what the government has said and we are going to hold it strongly,” said Mr. Njoroge.

“We need an app, that anytime you come to my premises I will just ask for your phone number where I will put it on my phone and show whether you are vaccinated. At times it’s a bit hard to go and ask people if they are vaccinated but if we can get that app it will help.”

The bar owners further urged the Ministry of Health to establish partnerships with some of them, especially the large establishments, to use their premises as vaccination centers.

In a Wednesday decree, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Dr. Mercy Mwangangi said that anybody seeking in-person government services should have taken the double jab and show proof of vaccination whether in hard copy or digital format.

She noted that proof of vaccination will also be needed in public places such as national parks, game reserves, hotels, bars, restaurants, as well as in public transport means among them domestic flights, trains, and PSVs.

President Uhuru Kenyatta will chair the 6th extra-ordinary session of the National and County Governments Summit on Wednesday next week, according to a statement by State House spokesperson Kanze Dena.

It is a summit that comes at a time the country has witnessed an outright violation of the Ministry of Health protocols by Kenyans, and mostly by the politicians.

If not shaking hands, some politicians are no longer using face masks, as if the pandemic is long gone.

Appeals of Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe for people to observe the laid-out protocols have largely been ignored.

“Kenyans should continue to wear facemasks correctly while in public spaces, apply correct hand hygiene at all times, and adhere with the physical and social distancing guidelines and protocols that have been put in place to safeguard our individual and collective health and safety,” the President Uhuru Kenyatta cautioned on Wednesday.

He added that “By doing so, Kenyans will ensure that our Nation does not lose the hard-fought-for ground secured in the fight against COVID-19, and also that our Nation shall not be compelled to roll-back the easing of the restrictions that Kenyans enjoy today.”

The summit Will review the trend of the disease and how the infection rate is likely to be in the months of November and December.

This would spell doom to a struggling economy that has seen the unemployment rate shoot to worrying levels.

The latest statistics by the government indicate more than 16 million Kenyans are unemployed.

Millions of others are either surviving on a reduced salary or have been fired.

When the government lifted some of the restrictions and extended the dusk to dawn curfew hours, there was hope that the country will bounce back until the second wave of coronavirus disease hit.

The country lost 16 lives on Wednesday to the disease, raising the fatality to 950.

So far, 32, 258 people have recovered from the disease out of the total caseload of 51, 851 since March.