Good morning fellow Kenyans,
Slightly over a week has passed now since the first case of the novel Coronavirus was reported in the country and things are apparently getting worse.
A seemingly enraged Health CS Mutahi Kagwe on Sunday painted a gloomier future ahead over ignorant Kenyans who have been defying government’s directive on avoiding public gatherings and self quarantining (for those who jetted into the country recently).
Sadly, among the ‘lawbreakers’ are leaders meant to be our role models. In particular, CS Kagwe singled out Kilifi deputy governor who reportedly refused to self-quarantine and potentially left the health of many Kenyans he came into contact with in jeopardy.
This, my fellow Kenyans, is the kind of ignorance we should be confronting if we want to avoid a full-blown crisis as we’ve been witnessing in countries such as Italy and Spain.
As we start a brand new week, let’s take a step back and imagine what would happen if we experienced half of what Italy is going through. 789 deaths in just 24 hours (the highest since the pandemic began) should be a wake-up call that we are not fighting a small battle. Do we even have the facilities to accommodate such numbers let alone taking care of patients who would require intensive medical attention? Can we survive the effects of a total military lockdown?
Me thinks we should count ourselves lucky that we have an example to learn from instead of waiting to foolishly learn from our painful experience.
As we stand with Italy, let’s remember it takes a single blade of grass to burn down a whole forest. It will take a few Kenyans to put us all at risk.
Let’s make the work of our medics less stressful even as they try to combat the disease with limited resources.
Here are the stories making headlines this morning:
Clerics Decry Low Offerings Over Coronavirus Fears
Baringo clerics have decried low offerings due to low turn out as worshippers remain in their homes due to fear of coronavirus.
Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK)-Kabarnet town Bishop Daniel Chemon said the number of faithful dropped drastically on Sunday.
Uganda Locks Border With Kenya
Malaba town remained deserted for the better part of Sunday afternoon after the Kenya-Uganda border was closed.
The closure is one of the Ugandan government’s robust measures to contain the spread of coronavirus after the East African country confirmed its first case of the highly infectious virus on Saturday.
Confusion Over Order Limiting Number of Passengers
Kenyans should prepare to pay more for public transport, as the sector stares at possible following government directives to curb the spread of coronavirus
Announcing a new raft of measures on Friday, Health CS Mutahi Kagwe said a 14-seater matatu should carry a maximum of eight passengers, while those that carry 25 passengers will carry a maximum of 15.
The government on Friday announced a number of measures to curb further spread of COVID-19, among them a reduced number of passengers each matatu is required to carry. On Sunday, CS Kagwe emphasized that violation of that directive would result in prosecution and revocation of their licenses. On the other hand, matatu operators have decried that such a move would hurt their businesses immensely and further asked the government to fuel their vehicles instead. Do you think such a drastic directive will work?