Anti-climax as President Uhuru extends night curfew
The hopes of Kenyans to soon resume their night businesses and lives were yesterday dashed after President Uhuru Kenyatta extended the national wide curfew which he announced in March as part of the measures to tame the spread of the novel coronavirus which has continued to escalate.
The president, in a move that will force Kenyans to continue to rush to their respective residences before 9pm and remain indoors until 4am, announced that the curfew will remain in place for another 30 days after experts and stakeholders established that the country had not met the irreducible minimum to warrant lifting.
“I order and direct that the nationwide curfew that is currently in force between the hours of 9pm and 4am daily, be and is hereby extended by a further 30 days,” he said in an announcement that means night travelling and businesses which thrive at night such as hotels and bars will remain suspended.
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Operation of bars
And yesterday, the president also extended the restriction of the operation of bars to ‘take-away’ only.
Hotels and eateries, supermarkets, fuel stations, mobile money agents, barbershops and salons, public transport vehicle operators and motorbike taxi riders, chemists and vegetable and meat sellers, among others, are some of the businesses that have been drastically affected by the curfew which was necessitated by the fast spreading of Covid-19.
The President’s statement comes after he March 25, announcement of the starting period of curfew as part of a raft of measures aimed at cushioning Kenyans against the spread of the virus that has so far affected about 8, 000 people and claimed over 100 lives.
The curfew, however, does not apply to workers offering essential services including police, media, food, medicine and petrol suppliers, mobile service providers, the fire brigade, and Kenya Power, supermarkets and emergency service
But on June 6, Uhuru amended the curfew time by three hours after reducing it from 7 pm to 5 am to 9pm to 4am to enable businesses to have more time to operate as initially they were being forced to close earlier.
