Angry Youths Disrupt Mass Testing for COVID-19 in Kenya

There was drama in Mombasa, Kenya after angry youths stormed a mass testing exercise for COVID-19 accusing the officials of disrupting the Ramadan prayers.

It all started at around 4pm on Tuesday, May 5, when youths heavily armed with crude weapons barricaded the streets insisting they needed to be left free for them to conduct their daily prayers.

In a report by The Standard, the youths blocked vehicles from accessing the town and an ambulance that was to pick a patient was blocked and ejected from the area.

The medical team was forced to flee the area after the rowdy youths threatened to burn an ambulance that they were using.

In a viral video on social media, some youths were seen blocking the road as a man was praying behind them with one of them threatening another man who was driving into the streets.

In Mombasa county, the Old Town has the highest cases of COVID-19 with over 57 cases out of the 169 recorded in the coastal town.

However, despite having the highest number of cases, residents are resistant to government’s containment measures.

The infections in the town started around April 19 when a local herbalist and Islamic scholar succumbed to COVID-19 and within days five members of his family had also tested positive.

Despite assurance from the county government to foot the bills of the residents either in quarantine facilities or those who have been treated, the locals have become a stumbling block to eradication of the disease from the town.

When tests were launched at two stations in Old Town late last week only seven residents turned up, prompting the governor and local leaders to warn that they were courting a disaster.

When medical teams returned on Monday evening they were met with hostility and chased away, with hostile youths chanting that they will not allow health officials there.

The state has threatened a total lockdown of the densely populated shanty town and barred non-residents from entering it to stem infections.