Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has broken his silence on the issue of motivational speaker, pastor Robert Burale being a Covid-19 patient.

Speaking in Mombasa County on Thursday July 9, 2020 while responding to a question raised by one of the journalists, CS Kagwe said he don’t know any person called Burale.

Responding to the question of whether Burale was paid to act as a Covid-19 patient, Kagwe said that the government has not, and cannot pay someone to act.

He however noted that Burale can be literally sick but Kenyans have taken it as a joke.

Soon after preacher and motivational speaker Robert Burale spoke out about testing positive for COVID-19, netizens had varied reactions.

was the subject of discussion across social media with some saying they find it hard to believe that he has the coronavirus.It was shortly after that that netizens created a challenge to mimic his hospital video. This prompted Kenya Film Classification Board CEO Ezekiel Mutua to advise netizens to refrain from mocking and making jokes about other people’s health.

While giving an update on his health from his hospital bed, Burale earlier cautioned Kenyans from taking the pandemic lightly.

While breaking news of his admission at The Nairobi Hospital, Burale explained that he owes it to his family and friends to publicly declare his COVID-19 status. Upon receiving the news, he said he was scared and immediately thought about his daughter whom they had been spending time together. However, in his post, Burale confirmed that his daughter is okay.

The country has recorded 447 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours after testing 3,803 samples bringing the total to 8,975.

This is the largest number of confirmed cases in day since the first case was reported in the country.

CS Mutahi Kagwe said a total of 64 patients were discharged bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,657.

Four more people also succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours bringing the death toll to 173.

Kagwe said since the cessation of movement was lifted three days ago, the government has been focusing on county preparedness to fight the curb of COVID-19.

He urged county governors who had not reached the maximum of 300 beds as proposed by the Ministry of health to do so.