The 11 suspects, employees of a clinic in Nairobi, were arrested yesterday after an online notice claiming that the facility sold the testing kits surfaced on social media.
The social media post indicated that each testing kit was retailing at Sh3,000 and that 600 out of a stock of 1,000 had already been sold.
The post also provided a till number through which payment for the kits could be channeled.
The advertisement claimed that all tests for the virus would yield results within 15 minutes and that no specialised training was required to conduct the test.
“They say that they are left with 400. We want to know who the 600 were sold to,” Daniel Yumbwa, Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council chief executive, told the newspaper.
On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed there were at least 327 cases of coronavirus in Africa.
Kenya confirmed its first case of COVID-19, the medical term for the disease, on Friday. The East African country has confirmed a total of three cases as of Tuesday morning.
On Monday, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said his government was suspending travel from any country with reported COVID-19 cases.
“Only Kenyan citizens, and any foreigners with valid residence permits, will be allowed to come in, provided they proceed on self-quarantine,” he told the nation in a televised address.
Schools should close immediately and universities by the end of the week, he added. Citizens would be encouraged to make cashless transactions to cut the risk of handling contaminated money.
As of Tuesday morning, the disease has killed more than 6,600 people and infected almost 168,000 people worldwide, according to WHO.