Kenyan police have arrested a prison warden for raping a female patient in a COVID-19 isolation facility he was assigned to guard.
The arrest on Friday July 17, 2020, adds to a string of similar incidents revealing substandard conditions at some government-run coronavirus treatment centre in the East African country.
According to health experts, Kenyans may be discourage to come forward for coronavirus test over the growing fear of demeaning treatment in government facilities.
Earlier this year there were several breakouts from quarantine centre amid bitter complaints about inadequate food, water and hygiene from those kept inside.
In March, authorities said they were investigating a reported suicide at a quarantine facility.
According to the police report about the rape incident, it happened at a centre in the western border town of Busia manned by a combined team of police and prison officials.
One of the police officers noticed a prison officer talking to a female patient and therefore left the scene to alert other officers.
The report said;
They heard noise and commotion coming from the women’s ward. They (officers) rushed there and found all the patients outside and complaining that the prison officer was raping the said lady patient.
Health officers were summoned. The officer has been disarmed by senior officers from prison and quarantined within the facility.
No comment regarding the incident was made from police and health ministry.
Complaints of brutality by members of the security forces are extremely common in Kenya.
Last month the police watchdog announced it was investigating officers who had tied up a woman and dragged her behind a motorbike.
Kenya as at Sunday morning has confirmed 12,750 cases of the novel coronavirus and 225 deaths, according to data from the health ministry.
