New twist as driver in Homa Bay funeral saga disowns test results

The vehicle used by 12 mourners who travelled from Nairobi to Homa Bay. [James Omoro, Standard]

The driver accused of using an empty casket to ferry relatives to Homa Bay has disowned results indicating he tested positive to Covid-19 disease.

Similarly, it has emerged that two sets of mourners had travelled separately from Nairobi to Homa Bay where they were nabbed after passing all police road blocks.

On Saturday, Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe announced that a driver, who had cheated his way from Nairobi to Homa Bay had tested positive to Covid-19. However, the 27-year-old driver yesterday disputed the reports, saying he is among nine mourners who travelled in a shuttle with an empty coffin last Tuesday.

The driver shocked the public when he said he was Covid-19 negative. He said the duration in which his body samples were taken and the time the test results were released was less than 24 hours. He was speaking from Homa Bay Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) quarantine centre.

From the centre, he was taken to Malela Covid-19 treatment and isolation centre.

“My body samples were taken on Thursday afternoon and the results were released on Friday at 3am,” he told The Standard on phone from the isolation centre.

The driver was adamant he that he was not suffering from any illness.

“My body temperature ranges between 34-36 degrees Celsius. I don’t have any health problems. Let the government remove me from this centre because I am not sick,” he said.

But a senior county health official said the driver was positive.

The official, who sought not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, explained the driver’s body samples were taken and tested in the right way at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) in Kisumu.

“We took his body samples alongside those of other people quarantined but his results turned positive before we isolated him to Malela,” the official said and challenged the young man to produce his results. "We relied on the test results from Kemri, which proved he was positive.” 

The driver and the other eight mourners travelled from Huruma in Nairobi to attend the burial of Ms Joyce Opar at Kadede village, Kamser Seka Sub-location in Rachuonyo North Sub-county.

However, there was another group of mourners with 12 people who travelled to the same sub-county from Nairobi on Saturday.

The 12 mourners were headed for a funeral of their relative at Alego village, Kamser A Sub-location, Kamser Nyakongo location in Rachuonyo North Sub-county on Saturday evening.

Rachuonyo North Deputy County Commissioner James Mabeya said the mourners were arrested between Kendu Bay town and Pala trading centre before arriving in the home and were also quarantined at KMTC.