President Uhuru Kenyatta on Saturday hinted at easing the
measures that had been put in place to curb the spread of Coronavirus in the
country.
While addressing the nation from State House, the Head of
State acknowledged that many Kenyans were enduring difficult times but the
measures in place had to be taken to ensure the situation does not get out of
hand.
He, however, stated that just like other countries, Kenya
will have to open up at some point.
“We cannot continue telling Kenyans to stay at home…for us
to reignite the economy, everyone has a role to play.
“You have the responsibility of looking out for yourself and
those around you,” he said.
Adding: “I have told officials from the Ministry of Health
to start telling Kenyans that we cannot continue with the lockdown and curfew.”
President Kenyatta said if life goes back to normal and the
virus starts spreading again it will be because people will not have adhered to
the guidelines issued.
“If we adhere to what we are told we shall overcome. I am
confident. There will come a time when we will open up the country and it will
boil down to the responsibility of each and every Kenyan,” he said.
The President also rolled out an 8-point economic stimulus
program amounting to Sh53.7billion.
The first element will focus on infrastructure and a total
of Sh5billion has been set aside to hire local labor to engage in this
undertaking.
The second element on the stimulus program is on education
where the government has allocated Sh6.5billion to hire 10,000 teachers &
1000 ICT interns to support digital learning.
The third element on the stimulus program will target SME’s
where Sh10billion has been allocated to fast track payment of outstanding VAT
refunds & other pending payments.
Other sectors of the economy that will benefit from the package are health care, agriculture, tourism and environment.