With the governors going into the Monday meeting with President Uhuru with a divided opinion on lockdown and scandals of counties over their Covid-19 preparedness, many expected the extraordinary summit on the pandemic to be tense.
Before the meeting, President Uhuru Kenyatta was expected to decide whether to give in to pressure from governors to put Nairobi and Mombasa in a new lockdown or opt for the country’s economic recovery by leaving them open.
Over the weekend the governors unanimously agreed to ask the President to reintroduce movement restrictions in and out of Nairobi and Mombasa, places considered to be the hotspot.
On the other end, high-ranking government officials were said to be against any proposal for lockdown on grounds that it would reverse against already made by the country towards economic recovery.
But far from the expectation, the governors were given the unexpected. They were greeted to a cordial four-hour virtual meeting courtesy of somewhat jovial host – President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Both the President and the county chiefs discussed a raft of measures and reached 23 recommendations to help curb the spread of the virus, some of which did not feature in the President’s speech.
The President, for instance, gave the directive to the Treasury to immediately release Sh57.3 billion to the devolved units to boost their war chest against coronavirus.
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Mr. Kenyatta further gave the National Treasury two weeks to release to the county government the outstanding remittances of conditional grants amounting to Sh4.6 billion.
During the fifth extraordinary session on Covid-19, President Uhuru Kenyatta also instructed the county government to procure personal protective equipment (PPE) from government-approved suppliers.
