Total lockdown looms if Kenyans continue to ignore Covid-19 rules
A night guard at a Nairobi street CBD on May 5, 2020. Kenya imposed a dusk to dawn curfew to curb the spread of coronavirus.
What you need to know:
- Upcountry folk were not too keen on the lifting of the Nairobi and Mombasa lockdowns.
- The government is washing its hands of blame in case the situation worsens.
Lives versus livelihoods neatly distilled the dilemma for the government ahead of its July 6 announcement on the Covid-19 situation. The choice was between arresting a pandemic and salvaging an economy in free fall. Yet when life is at an impasse, the mother with no payslip and has children to feed and rent to pay will choose a livelihood without hesitation.
The biggest news was the lifting of travel restrictions for Nairobi and Mombasa, which many of the scientists and medics advising the government pushed to be maintained. However, the pragmatists won the day. The economy badly needs a respite. Likewise, the population was saying they wanted some normality to resume.
It will be a tricky balancing act. Upcountry folk were not too keen on the lifting of the Nairobi and Mombasa lockdowns. The Council of Governors had expressed this concern insistently, warning against the risk of large-scale migration of infections from the two urban hotspots into the countryside, where healthcare access and facilities are far inferior.
COVID-19 ISOLATION UNITS
In any case, as of last week, only 23 counties had met the Ministry of Health's recommended threshold of 300-bed capacity Covid-19 isolation units for each county.
The government's guarded move of "phased opening" of the country is no doubt provisional. The President made no bones about this when he said "any trends that signal a deterioration of the situation will leave us with no choice but to return to zero-option".
It was clear that public pressure to reopen was very much the factor. The experts have been warning that the real peak of infections is coming, probably in August or September.
Still, the government went ahead to loosen things up. What officialdom was saying was basically this: "Ok, let's see how things go. If there's a dangerous spike, it's back to mandatory lockdowns." Politics is very much at play here. The government is washing its hands of blame in case the situation worsens. Note the President's deliberate stress in his address on "individual responsibility". It's up to you now to keep yourself safe, he was telling us. I fear a lockdown could be looming that will not be partial but total.
Ominously, Kenya is easing restrictions when the Covid-19 caseload has been rising alarmingly lately.
As of last week, our country ranked 10th overall in Africa in virus cases and ninth in the number of deaths. From March when the first cases were diagnosed, the numbers steadily rose to reach 918 in nine weeks.
OVER 9,000
The subsequent weeks have seen a rapid multiplication to over 9,000 cases now. The rise shows no signs of slowing even as the government was relaxing restrictions. Indeed, a recent Kemri study estimated some 2.7 million Kenyans may be exposed to the coronavirus.
There has been a lot of hullabaloo about reopening places of worship, mostly coming from evangelical sects. Nobody is unaware of the pecuniary motivation behind the noise (when crisis hits, the scripture has no problem with the faithful praying from home). The pressure had drawn in politicians too, with one faction undergoing a political purge being most vocal on reopening. There was no mystery why: churches had become a favourite stamping ground for that faction after being made unwelcome at official government functions.
WOSHIPPERS
The churches and mosques will now reopen under strict rules whereby no more than a hundred worshippers congregate, and services are concluded within an hour. None of the congregants should be in the vulnerable age exceeding 58 years.
Political gatherings, meanwhile, remain prohibited. Schools, which are a highly vulnerable category, will reopen next year.
"When this Covid-19 pandemic ends..." has become a common utterance when people talk of to-do tasks "post-Covid". But why imagine the coronavirus is going anywhere? A Covid-free scenario may be fanciful. The World Health Organization has not always been terribly consistent with its guidelines, but its prediction in May that coronavirus will become endemic could turn out to be true. It means the virus is not disappearing, and will become a part of our lives just like the common cold. The rest will be about managing the virus.
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On the 30th anniversary of Saba Saba day last Tuesday, I was totally taken aback by some chap who tried to concoct a connection between the 1990 protesters and today's fake narratives of "hustlers". They are as different as night and day.
The former were fighting to break up a dictatorship, while this other lot is likely to create another one given a chance. The Nyayoists masqueraded as pro-people, too. Yet they could not keep social distance from corruption loot. The parallels are all there. Even in the Bible-thumping.
