NAIROBI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- At the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) building in the capital Nairobi, a handful of people streamed in on Thursday, some who were turned away at the entrance by the guards.
The building during normal times is usually among the busiest in the city center, with long queues of citizens seeking tax services lasting the entire day.
But things have changed since March 13 when Kenya announced its first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with the number of infected people has risen to seven till March 20.
Not only have the queues disappeared at the KRA offices but citizens are continuing to access services -- albeit virtually.
"To minimize congestion at KRA, taxpayers are encouraged to access services online. And to avoid the risk of transmission through the handling of money, KRA encourages taxpayers to make payments via mobile money," the tax agency informed the public in a notice on March 16.
The government institution is among tens of firms in the East African nation, which have taken their services exclusively online to enforce social distancing -- one of the measure's key in the fight against COVID-19.
The online services have enabled government corporations and private firms to avoid citizens crowding at their premises risking infection.
Some of the institutions which have taken their services online, besides government agencies dealing with immigration, vehicle and land registration, are private insurance firms, banks and supermarkets.
Kenyans are, therefore, getting tens of services from the comfort of their homes where some are self-quarantined, minimizing chances of contracting the disease.
Payment for the services is also done virtually using mobile money to prevent the risk of the spread of the disease through cash payments.
"We continue to serve you through MyBritam app, MyBritam portal or via USSD as the coronavirus situation unfolds," insurance firm Britam informed its clients on Thursday.
Gilbert Wandera, a computer seller in Nairobi, termed the online services as timely.
"Every month I have been forced to visit the KRA office to submit the tax collected on the sale of computers and other items but for the first time, I did it online and it was seamless," said Wandera, who paid the tax via mobile money on Wednesday.
Similarly, auditor Victoria Selima, who works with a government parastatal in the capital Nairobi, and she is currently working from home, shopped online at Tuskys, a leading Kenyan retail chain and the goods were delivered at her home in less than an hour.
"I am not leaving the house anytime soon so when I saw the supermarket is encouraging online shopping, I jumped on it. This is good because chances of getting close to people and thus spreading the virus are reduced," she said.
According to her, it is Kenyans' duty to keep social distancing to help the government fight the virus.
"It is good that institutions are ensuring that online services are working. I hope this will continue even after the crisis and they build on it," she said.
The World Health Organization describes social distancing as practices that include curtailing social contact among healthy individuals to delay the spread of COVID-19 thus reduce the size of an outbreak.
The global health body notes that reducing rate of contact with other people by avoiding public spaces and unnecessary social gatherings lowers greatly risk of infection.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus observes that social distancing and other measures are a good step in the fight against coronavirus.
Bernard Mwaso of Edell IT Solution, a software development start-up in Nairobi, termed the use of online services to social distance as one of the ways to fight COVID-19.
"Kenya is lucky because it is not starting from scratch because online services have been in use. What firms are doing amid the coronavirus crisis is strengthening their online capacity to make the services reliable thus robust," he said.
