A total of 23 people from West Pokot County who had been put under quarantine in Uganda for 21 days have been released by Ugandan authorities.
The youths, mostly herders and business people drawn from Lokales ,Amakuriat,Lorengipi,Lorekai, Cherichor ,Lorio areas were arrested earlier this month at Kokochwai area along the Kenya–Uganda. They were received back home on Sunday by Kapenguria member of parliament Samuel Moroto at Adurokoit village in Suam ward.
Led by Mr. Abraham Amarireng from Lokales area,the youths said that they suffered while in quarantine, were harassed and lived under tough conditions at Katikis Primary school in Amudat District.
Amarireng said that they were arrested by Ugandan soldiers and taken to Amudat area, where they were subjected to Covid-19 tests. They turned out negative but were still placed in quarantine and he added that as days went on more people joined them and the number grew.
They complained over poor conditions at the quarantine facility, a high number of people who weren’t observing social distancing, “We used to eat once in a day…The first day we slept hungry and the second day we took porridge without sugar,” said Amarireng, “We used to sleep in classrooms on desks, there were no mattresses and blankets. We used mosquito nets to cover ourselves.”
He said that no leader from Uganda visited them.
Another person, Mr. Achipa John from Kokochwai said that he was nabbed when he was coming from a river bath. “We decided to sleep outside the classroom after the number of people reaches 45 in one class,” he said, adding that 2 people escaped due to fear of contracting Coronavirus.
MP Moroto lauded the youths for showing perseverance in Uganda and accused some Ugandans living along the Kenya-Uganda border of incitement and labelling Kenyans as people bugged by the Coronavirus.