Pervasive denial hampers war on coronavirus

My two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter this week told me: “Babu, wash hands.”

She is a stranger to the coronavirus, but she must have been intrigued by the spectacle of regular handwashing.

From China, Europe and America, we are witnessing the devastating consequences of Covid-19. Imagine a recent flu virus more ferocious and lethal than HIV/Aids.

It has seriously assaulted first-world health systems, socio-economic and cultural systems, religious institutions, livelihoods, families and even the individual.

To stem it, the pandemic has demanded no less than a total shutdown of society. In the Cold War era, with the spectre of nuclear war, bunkers had been built to shelter remnant humanity. The new bunker is now the home.

Mercifully for the developing South, the pandemic arrived in Kenya and Africa in general after we had witnessed its viciousness.

As we empathise with the rest of the afflicted world, we are learning from them how to develop our response.

And again, imagine the seemingly simple ways of combating the virus. First, accepting it is lethal, hairudishi (it does not return) balance.

URBAN DISEASE

Some of the protocols: wash your hands. Keep safe distance from the other person. Avoid social gatherings of whatever kind.

Be alert to the popularised symptoms of the disease. If suspicious of infection, seek mandatory quarantine and/or prompt medical attention.

Why are these measures difficult to follow religiously?

As part of county leadership, we have announced several weighty measures in consultation with the national response organ that have had a great impact on citizens’ livelihoods.

The private sector has closed or downsized their businesses. Job opportunities are fast disappearing. Self-employment has shrunk.

However, lives must be saved so that tomorrow they can be rebuilt. I was saddened to be told by one Kenyan: she preferred death by coronavirus than hunger.

Strangely, there are many Kenyans and other Africans who believe they are immune to Covid-19 for it is allegedly a foreigners’ disease.

Even many rural folk believe the coronavirus is a city malady. Notably, then, there is astounding pervasive denial.

FLOUTING RULES

Some religious leaders preach the virus has no power over believers. Even some African politicians are yet to comment on the pandemic for fear of voter backlash.

In our counties, many citizens are still flouting regulations meant to secure our common security. We refuse to be our brother's and sister's keeper.

We have no option but to obey the very simple rules of thumb that are meant to protect all of us. We must quickly develop the culture of mass discipline.

China and Japan have successfully fought the pandemic because their people trusted and obeyed their professional and public leaders. We, too, need to trust our leaders.

We have seen in South Korea, Malaysia and even in Kenya how one person can infect multitudes.

In the end, if people die because of one’s recklessness, the perpetrator has killed those infected.

ATTITUDE CHANGE

We now should know countries, peoples, individuals and their systems are interdependent. The coronavirus has reminded us all that human beings are equal.

It has also dramatically demonstrated death is our next-door neighbour. Can this realisation today make us exit the world of business as usual and commit to radical change?

The coronavirus requires two types of medicines to cure it: social medicine and curative medicine.

I have already discussed the social medicine: avoiding social gatherings, those suspected of infection or the infected and commitment to high standards of hygiene. Today, the ultimate doze of social medicine is staying at home.

Truth be told, the majority of our people will face loss of livelihood due to the impeding economic meltdown.

The national and county governments must device a robust rescue plan for these citizens. Examples are the jua kali sector, hawkers, mama mboga, small-scale farmers, artisans, the recently retrenched, slum dwellers, underprivileged senior citizens and indigent youth.

Covid-19 curative medicine is about the entire process of treating those who become sick as well as the vaccine quest.

RESOURCES

This is the hard part in the battle against the virus. If Western healthcare systems have experienced serious gaps in their response, Africa cannot possibly fare better.

In advanced cases of the coronavirus, ICU treatment facilities are required. We have a major deficit of these in Kenya.

In some situations abroad, an ethical decision has had to be taken regarding which of two patients deserves one ICU facility.

The UN family and other development partners are working closely with the national and county governments to provide assistance to fight the pandemic.

Kenya is also raising her own resources. In keeping with our president’s war against sleaze, nobody should exploit the coronavirus fight to plunder.

Philanthropist Chinese Jack Ma and the Cuban doctors who have gone to Italy to volunteer are sterling examples of humanity at its giving best.

In Kenya, our health personnel, national and county administrations and enforcement forces are committed to frontline work.

FAMILY LIFE

They need the necessary protective gear and other logistical support. Some of our ordinary people are beginning to enforce the norms necessary to keep us safe.

To them, I say bravo. You are defining the new post-coronavirus Kenya. Now that we have time to be home, what should we do there?

Let us take time to slow down. Counter the rat race. Think of God. What about a renewed or fresh relationship with God?

And to think about this as the family nest. Get to know each other more, to enjoy family. Initially it may be a strange affair. Opening lines of past blocked communication.

We need to eschew loneliness. Review one’s life. Work and learn from home. Think how we can help others.

And be one Kenya, even one Africa and one world because coronavirus has shown us that only imagined boundaries and other divisions exist.

Let us share the short-term pain, the suffering and the resilience and hope to come.

The author is governor of Makueni County