Kenyan Priest Tests Positive for COVID-19 after Defying Self-Quarantine Directive

The burial, which took place in Kinda village of St. Joseph’s Ugunja Parish in Kenya’s Kisumu Archdiocese, was of the mother to a Nun of the religious congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna (FSSA). 

Unlike reports in local media in Kenya that Fr. Richard presided over the funeral Mass and that he visited the FSSA convent at Lwak, ACI Africa has gathered that he concelebrated at the Mass and did not visit the convent. 

Considering the general mood in the country after the first case of COVID-19 in Kenya was confirmed, the two SPS priests have recalled asking “Fr. Richard to stay at his home place in Kisumu for 14 days and self-quarantine but he insisted he wanted to come back” to Nairobi.

“On his arrival on Monday the 16^th, we immediately took him to a room at the back of the parish compound (which was formerly a store) and isolated him there,” Fr. Bosco and Fr. Anthony-Mario have stated, adding that they did not permit Fr. Richard to celebrate Mass in public at the parish.

“Unfortunately, even though we made sure that Fr. Richard was in isolation, we learned that during his period of isolation/quarantine, he had (on his own volition) visited some friends,” the priests have further disclosed, raising fears that Fr. Richard might have spread the virus in Kenya where the government has reported 16 cases of COVID-19.

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With the help of Fr. Richard, a team of health personnel in Kenya is tracing the various people he might have interacted with in recent days.

"The health officers have been sent to all those areas where it's believed that the priest visited to curb a further spread," Kenya’s Siaya county commissioner, Michael Ole Tialal has been quoted as saying.

Fr. Bosco and Fr. Anthony-Mario have offered to get themselves tested for the virus on Tuesday, March 24 even though they say they “had taken all precautions and avoided contact with him throughout the week.”

They have also decided to quarantine themselves for the next 14 days.

“Please let us pray for each other as we continue to take the necessary precautions and protect ourselves and our loved ones,” the two religious clerics have implored in their collective message.

According to Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mutahi Kagwe, 626 people who were in contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 have been traced.

Among the raft of measures the government has taken include the suspension of international flights from Wednesday, March 25, stopping public gatherings including religious ones, and passengers arriving in the country before Wednesday undergoing a “mandatory quarantine at their own expense in selected hotels or at government approved facilities,” among other measures.

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.