President can’t preach water, drink wine in Covid-19 fight

It’s easy to blame indisciplined Kenyans for the rise in Covid-19 infections seen in the past week.

Almost every place that the usual crowds gather to trade, drink, gossip or just while away the time, face masks properly worn and social distancing are the exception rather than the rule.

Despite all the public information campaigns, ignorance, or utter stupidity, still reigns supreme. We have an unhealthy number of people still in denial over the threat posed by the worst pandemic to spread across the world in more than a century.

BIZARRE FALSEHOODS

It’s also frightening the sheer numbers lending their ears to the most outlandish and bizarre falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the origin and spread of the coronavirus.

But if the teeming masses refuse to treat the pandemic with the serious it deserves, it’s because the supposedly educated, knowledgeable and informed leaders do not lead by example.

When President Kenyatta continues hosting political gatherings, he does so in defiance of the very rules he has imposed in the attempt to halt the spread of Covid-19. He knows very well that the prohibition against large gatherings did not exempt the Jubilee Parliamentary Group.

The ruling Jubilee Party, even in its death throes, is not an essential service as defined by the legal notices setting out Covid-19 restrictions on movement and gatherings.

Politicians continuing to meet with impunity makes it impossible to justify the case for continued bans on church and mosque services, sporting events, large funerals, weddings, corporate functions, conferences and any other large gatherings where the risk of contamination is likely to be high.

If the law were applied evenly, the Jubilee Coalition Parliamentary Group meeting yesterday at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre should never have been allowed.

And if the conveners insisted, the police should have moved in forcefully with their tear gas and truncheons and scattered the assembled members of the ‘lootocracy’.

Kenya is a country of laws, which should be applied equally without discrimination. We cannot have one set of laws for the rich and powerful and another for the weak and helpless.

SOLEMN OATH

The law must not make a distinction between the Jubilee faction controlled by President Kenyatta and the rival grouping loyal to Deputy President William Ruto, who, too, has been hosting gatherings larger than stipulated under the Covid-19 safety regulations.

President Kenyatta took a solemn oath to defend and protect the Constitution and the laws. He should, therefore, be the last person to treat with contempt those very laws, especially in the grave circumstances where a terrible pandemic has virtually shut down the country.

The curfew, travel restrictions and prohibition of large gatherings have all taken a terrible toll on Kenyans who are making the ultimate sacrifice. Those who have lost jobs and incomes have had to reluctantly concede that drastic measures were vital to slow the spread of coronavirus.

President Kenyatta has himself attributed the fact that Covid-19 has not spread as fast as initially projected to the tough restrictions imposed. He can’t be preaching water and drinking wine. It is actually the height of hypocrisy to justify the restrictions, and then summon a political gathering in breach of those same restrictions.

SECURITY FORCES

Of course the Ministry of Health and the security forces — the key agencies in war against coronavirus — will have played blind and deaf to the Jubilee parley.

We have already seen many instances where those on the right side of the political divide have been free to congregate and, possibly, spread the coronavirus while those that don’t toe the straight and narrow path are violently dispersed with extreme prejudice.

As Jubilee met, I just hope they took a little time out from ‘politricks’ to consider some stark facts: The ratio of positive cases against total tests so far indicate that nearly two million people in Kenya may be infected with Covid-19.

One can take into account that the tests target suspect groups and are, therefore, not representative of the general population. Okay, make an adjustment and halve the number. One million Covid-19 cases is still way too much for a nation of 50 million.

We have been extremely fortunate that Covid-19 here, and in the rest of Africa, is not taking the terrible toll seen in Europe, the United States and Brazil. We don’t know why, but we must not tempt fate.

Holding political meeting and other gatherings at a time like this is the mark of criminal irresponsibility. Let us remember that no group, including those in power, are immune from the coronavirus.

[email protected] @MachariaGaitho www.gaitho.co.ke