![Kiharu Member of parliament Ndindi Nyoro at a past public function. [PHOTO | FILE]](https://i0.wp.com/www.k24tv.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/NDINDI-NYORO.jpg?resize=730%2C414&ssl=1)
By Alfred Maina in Murang'a County
Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro has urged the Parliamentary Service Commission not to credit his bank account with the April 2020 salary, saying the remuneration should be channelled to the fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Kenya.
Speaking during the launch of Kambirwa Assistant County Commissioner’s office at the area’s trading center on Wednesday, April 1, Ndindi Nyoro said he and members of his staff have agreed to take pay-cuts, and the monies collected will go towards assisting in the fight against coronavirus spread in the country.
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Nyoro said whereas he will surrender his entire monthly gross salary – Ksh532, 500 – to the COVID-19 kitty, his team will take a 20 per cent pay-cut.
The monies, he said, will be remitted to the COVID-19 Emergency Fund Board.
The lawmaker urged the newly-formed Board to come up with a Paybill number that Kenyans of goodwill can contribute to.
“We may not have a single case registered in Kiharu Constituency. However, people in the informal sector such as boda boda operators and green grocers are experiencing the economic hardship wrought by the pandemic. And, because we understand the financial problems the virus has subjected this group of people to, I will commit 100 per cent of my April salary to the COVID-19 fight. Staff members attached to my office, including the CDF management, will take a 20 per cent pay-cut,” said Nyoro.
Elsewhere, Murang’a Woman Representative, Sabina Chege, urged the Government to provide medical insurance to health workers helping treat coronavirus patients.
Speaking on Wednesday at Kabati area in Kandara Constituency, where she had gone to donate masks to boda boda operators and traders in Kabati Market, Sabina Chege said the health workers are risking their lives attending to COVID-19 patients, and, therefore, there is need to insure their health and that of their immediate family members.
The woman rep’s remarks come a day after a clinical officer in Nairobi was confirmed as having tested positive for coronavirus.
The Kenya Union of Clinical Officers (KUCO), as a result, faulted the government’s measures in protecting health workers from the virus while in the line of duty.
The Union’s Secretary-General, George Gibore, said the clinical officer, a woman, was working at a health centre in Ngara, Nairobi, which has since been closed.
He said the officer exhibited symptoms of COVID-19 and was tested.
She is currently admitted at Mbagathi Hospital. Her husband also tested positive for the virus, and is isolated at the same facility, while her children and house-help are awaiting test results in isolation.
Kenya, as of Wednesday, April 1, confirmed that it had recorded 81 cases of coronavirus, with 22 new cases registered on April 1 alone.
The country has thus far registered a single death from COVID-19, and two recoveries. The total cases under treatment therefore stands at 78.
The Acting Director General of Health, Dr. Patrick Amoth, who addressed the press alongside Health CS Mutahi Kagwe at Afya House on Wednesday, said 77 out of the 78 patients are in stable conditions, with only one case admitted to the intensive care unit at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi.
“Only one of the patients is at the ICU at Aga Khan Hospital, and he is on ventilator support,” said Dr. Amoth, adding: “We are keeping in touch with the hospital to monitor his progress.”
“In the next two or three days, there could be another patient who will be declared virus-free,” said Dr. Amoth.
