Three Made In China Robots Donated To Kenya By Japan And The United Nations Development Program

Three made in China robots, Jasiri, Shujaa, and Tumaini have been donated to Kenya by Japan, and the United Nations Development Program, to play a key role in curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

Deployed at the country’s main international airport two weeks ago, the robots fight against the pandemic, keeping it disinfected and monitoring arrivals for signs of the virus.

The robot Jasiri which means "brave" in Swahili, does his rounds, spraying fine jets of sanitizer from containers attached to his sides, and taking infrared pictures with a camera mounted on an extendable neck while scanning hundreds of passengers per minute.

He takes their temperatures, records their data for storage, and, in tone-flat English, tells those not wearing masks to put them on and those standing too close to others to respect social distancing rules.

"Jasiri’s role in this airport is to enhance the safety of international travel," airport operations manager, Simon-Peter Njoroge told Reuters.

"This is one more example of how the future is going to look. The future is going towards contactless travel, it's going towards automation, it's going towards a greater focus on health security. I see that as a powerful force for the enhancement of air travel."

Meanwhile, the trio is also helping to curb the spread of an epidemic that has so far killed almost 1,800 and infected more than 100,000 in the East African nation - and saving passengers time on arrival formalities.

"There was a long queue but we have a system which can take more than one hundred people's temperature at the same time," said Major Pascal, from Burundi. "That is good."