Hold leaders to account

It is difficult to plan for the post-coronavirus; it is probably still too early.

But it is not excluded to think that several African states will one day be prosecuted before regional judicial bodies by their citizens for not having provided them with adequate medical services during the pandemic.

Almost all African countries are affected by the pandemic and the limited testing and care capacity in hospitals are a cause for concern.

The WHO has warned them to prepare for the worst due to their fragile health systems in which healthcare workers are under-equipped and insufficient, averaging two for 1,000 patients. Kenya’s is 8.3:1,000 against the WHO-recommended 25:10,000.

This observation, made well before the pandemic, raises questions like, will the governments be held to account and answer for their lack of preparation? Does Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights not stipulate that State parties “take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick”?

Right to health

Of course, if they are ever called upon to justify themselves before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), some States will argue that the right to health is progressive, a realisation of which depends on available resources.

In 2016, Sierra Leone was prosecuted in the Ecowas Court of Justice for having misused funds granted to it by the international community to fight the Ebola virus epidemic. A decade earlier, before ACHPR, Nigeria and The Gambia were condemned by the African Commission on Human Rights for violating the human right to health of their populations in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

African leaders must prevent the spread of contradictory and misleading information about the coronavirus. For this, too, they might have to answer.

Mr Odundo is a journalist in Nairobi. @V_Odundo