Travel bans won’t flatten the curve; your behaviour might

Washing hands with soap and running water at every available opportunity will become part of us. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • It would be a dereliction of duty on the part of the government to open up the country without strict measures and protocols to ensure every Kenyan stays safe.

As our Rasta brothers would say, since Covid-19 erupted, there has been a great deal of “sufferation” in this country.

The Grim Leveller caught Kenyans unaware and although there had been plenty of information about the virus in the world press, apparently, nobody cared.

This is probably because some people in authority were lulled to sleep by the unfounded myth that the coronavirus did not affect Africans. In fact, some charlatans claimed it could not survive in the tropical heat, which was why Africans were not dying like the Chinese or Italians.

They were soon to learn this was a big, fat lie. These initial misapprehensions brought about a sense of complacency and the health authorities were probably not as fast off the mark as they should have been.

However, thankfully, they have since redeemed themselves by letting everyone know that a deadly enemy lurks in every breath we take.

The weeks and months of despondency, which Kenyans stoically bore because they could not go anywhere they wished at night, reminded them what “freedom” means.

CONTAINMENT MEASURES

Luckily, when they were denied that freedom as a matter of life and death, they chose life and stayed indoors.

The countrywide (partial) lockdown through a nightly curfew has affected many in rather nasty ways. But the worst has been felt in Nairobi’s metropolitan area, Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale counties, where a cessation of movement protocol has been in force for the past three months.

This was meant to prevent folks from those Covid-19 hotspots rushing to hide in their rural homes and spreading the virus to their aged relatives.

The measure obviously helped, but the main problem was that it also kept away the most productive people from their businesses.

I know a couple of rural folk, for instance, who make a living in Nairobi selling spare parts smuggled from Asia.

For two months now, they have been unable to travel from their villages. And considering they have families to fend for, life has not been very easy for them.

ATTITUDE CHANGE

And here we are not even talking about people from the urban slums who must trek for kilometres daily, seeking elusive jobs so that they can feed their families and pay rent.

That is why Kenyans should go back to work. However, they cannot afford to let their guard down. This is a very intricate problem, for as President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged last Saturday, this country cannot be under lockdown forever.

At a time when everyone’s business has been negatively affected by the virus-induced economic stagnation, it is sad to note that peddling face masks and hand sanitisers seems to be the only growth industry in this country.

At the same time, it would be a dereliction of duty on the part of the government to open up the country without strict measures and protocols to ensure every Kenyan stays safe.

It is a given that someone must have been giving this matter a great deal of thought and there is no point second-guessing what the Health ministry has in store for us. But one thing is clear: Kenyans can’t ever go back to their carefree, happy-go-lucky ways of the past as though the danger is over.

We simply do not know enough about the disease. Indeed, we do not even know whether we have hit the peak or whether the worst is still ahead.

EXPECTATIONS RISE

Since the announcement by the President, the excitement has been palpable. People are at long last planning for some kind of future. 

They need to make a living and they also want their simple pleasures like social drinking at the pub, attending all-night pre-wedding bashes and other parties, attending church services on Sundays, and generally having the times of their lives.

Alas, it won’t happen. What we must realise is that this disease has forever changed how we relate with ourselves and with others.

I doubt people will so readily shake hands with as much gusto as they used to. They won’t be so quick to hug or peck each other.

And although we have taken to wearing face masks like cravats, we must realise that these garments will be part of our attire for a long time.

NEW CULTURES

Washing hands with soap and running water at every available opportunity will become part of us. On the flip side, shock and consternation await us if we don’t follow simple rules. Social distancing has to become the new normal if we are to survive as a species.

However, the people, especially the poor, are badly hurting and no stimulus package will reach them on time to make a difference.

Everyone is agreed that the gradual reopening is the way to go, but very few seem to know how it will work, and if they do, they are not saying.

This is enough to give Health CS Mutahi Kagwe ulcers because the number of people needing quarantine will inevitably go up, but this is the price to pay to avoid a worse conflagration from hungry Kenyans who may decide they have very little to lose. 

Mr Ngwiri is a consultant editor. [email protected]