The economy will be restarted but in a way that doesn’t risk the lives of Kenyans, President Uhuru Kenyatta has affirmed. Speaking on the progress of the fight to tame the spread of the coronavirus, President Kenyatta said a post-corona recovery plan and a youths employment program are already in place, “I’m conscious of the economic and livelihood distress that many Kenyans are feeling at this moment,” he said, “..We will reopen our economy but this must be in a way that doesn’t endanger many thousands of lives.”
He said keeping this in mind, a few restaurants and eateries in some Counties that shall have highest levels of compliance and ability to arrange for employees testing will be allowed to undertake minimal operations while maintaining measures that mitigate the Coronavirus spread.
He said a jobs program that will support those who are vulnerable at this point, especially youths, dubbed the National Hygiene Program’ will commence on Wednesday 29th April. The 1st phase which will create 26,148 jobs will last for 30 days with the aim of creating jobs while keeping the environment clean. The first cluster will involve residents from 23 informal settlements across 7 Counties most affected the Coronavirus. There will also be making of facemasks by 4,048 tailors in these informal settlements with upto 250,000 facemasks made in a day. He said the right protocol in employing has been carefully laid down to avert the spread of the Coronavirus. The 2nd phase will be larger and cover more areas.
The President also revealed that the government will activate Micro, Small and Medium enterprises across the country to manufacture basic medical equipment and supplies for domestic use and export.