Dirty tricks: How Covid-19 driver travelled with empty casket from Nairobi to Homa Bay
Details of how a driver, who later tested positive for Covid-19, travelled with an empty casket and fake mourners from Nairobi to Homa Bay can now be revealed.
The driver, whose identity cannot be revealed because he has been identified due to his coronavirus status, aided the travellers to come up with a fake death certificate.
The death certificate of registration number 1982757 purported to be issued by the registrar of persons, identified the late person as a Mr Miltone Obote Masala of ID number 24418903.
Details in the fake burial permit showed that the late was a resident of Kamser A in Rachuonyo and that the permit had been issued to one Mr Stephen Carlos.
The vehicle, a Toyota Noah of registration number KCD 290F, had carried five adults and five minors who travelled from Nairobi to Homa Bay county.
The 26-year-old driver managed to bypass several police checks and counties without being noticed until hawk-eyed police officers stopped him in Homa Bay, just a few kilometers shy of his destination.
In his briefing on Saturday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said the driver and all his passengers were placed in quarantine at the Kenya Medical Training College in Homa Bay.
“Suspicious security officers in Homa Bay checked a coffin at the top of the vehicle and found it empty and later what followed was the quarantining of the group,” Kagwe said.
He regretted that the group managed to travel all the way to Homa Bay at a time the government had stopped movement into and out of Nairobi to tame the virus.
The passengers, as soon as they are declared coronavirus-free, will be charged with knowingly spreading an infection, making a document without authority approval, uttering a false document and giving false information to a public officer.
The arrest of the driver exposes devious tricks drivers are using to ferry passengers out and into the city despite a cessation order that was issued by the government.