The Health Ministry has said the home-based care protocol for COVID-19 patients will be difficult to implement because Kenyans are indisciplined.

The govt was set to roll out the nursing protocol for Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms but has had to scale down its plans because the ministry has observed that citizens will not follow the rules to the letter.

Noting that the plan has worked in other developed countries, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said high levels of indiscipline among Kenyans remained a great hindrance to the success of the programme in the country.

“Let us be honest, there is no other reason. In Germany and Sweden they have got basically perfect home care quarantine policies essentially because they will obey the law and the rules,” Kagwe said.

“We have ourselves seen the culture here. Home care programmes will be introduced very slowly and at a time when we think and know that we are taking this disease seriously.”

The Health CS noted there had been special cases where the arrangement worked. For instance, some Kenyans who will be coming back from India this week, some who are hospital cases, will not be quarantined.

“We will ask their doctors to be the supervisors of their home care for the home care programme but as for the general public, we do not still feel confident enough to launch that programme.”