"30,000 eatery workers jobless over costly Covid testing"

More than 30,000 hotel workers in the North Rift cannot get Covid-19 tests due to a row between hotel owners and governors over the cost of testing. Tourism CS Najib Balala had directed testing be done at public hospitals for Sh1,000 per sample but most counties have asked hotel owners to use private clinics. Governors led by Jackson Mandago of Uasin Gishu said the Moi Teacher and Referral Hospital and other public testing centres focus on suspected Covid-19 patients. They cited a lack of resources to cover hotel workers.

Hotel owners in the region have complained that approved private laboratories were charging more than Sh8,300 per sample, which they called too expensive. “We cannot afford such costs in private facilities. Some hotels have up to 200 workers and it's not possible to raise such money for testing," Kevin Okwara, chairman of the region's hotel owners, said. He led hotel owners to meet Uasin Gishu county commissioner Abdirisack Jaldesa and complained of unworkable conditions for re-opening of restaurants. They called the requirements punitive and discriminatory.