‘Sibembelezi mtu anitolee bibi yangu’: Angry man wears ‘gunia’ to protest quarantining of wife

A middle-aged man from Ol Kalou in Nyandarua County decided to wear a sack on his upper part of the body, and went outside the JM Kariuki Memorial County Referral Hospital to demand his wife be released after completing a 14-day quarantine.

Joseph Mathenge’s wife, an agricultural products trader at Ol Kalou Market, was placed under mandatory confinement at Nyandarua High School after she returned to Nyandarua from Sirare in Migori County, where she had gone to buy fresh farm produce, including sweet potatoes, to sell.

Mathenge says his spouse, Jane Njeri -- a mother of two -- has completed the set 14-day quarantine period, but health officers have refused to let her go home. Njeri’s COVID-19 status remains unclear.

“When she returned from Migori, she was directed to go to Ol Kalou Police Station. Upon arriving at the police post, she was told that she would be placed under forced isolation for 14 days,” said Mathenge.

“I want my wife released. She is supposed to be out [of the quarantine center] working. Mimi sibembelezi mtu anitolee bibi yangu. Sibembelezi, na sitabembeleza (I am not begging anyone to release my wife. I vow not to do that),” shouted Mathenge on Saturday, April 25 while standing outside the JM Kariuki Hospital.

“I have a right. I will pursue my right up to the last minute. My wife should be out to look after her children. Where is she now? You’ve turned my family into a broken one. The government is not quarantining people the right way. It is breaking families, which are institutions recognised by the same government. Without families, no government can stand,” he said.

We couldn’t immediately get a comment from administrators of the Nyandarua High School quarantine facility.