Our resilience will guide us through this year

The dawn of the New Year brings with hopes and expectations for the year ahead. This is reason why many make resolutions and strive to make our lives better and by doing make the society better too. For Kenyans we have every reason to be optimistic given that last year was particularly difficult for many economically, physically and mentally.

This was largely due to the covid-19 pandemic. But it was a year that we saw the resilience of Kenyans in the face of the calamity. While economic activities were greatly affected by the pandemic, many quickly adapted through different innovations.

People were forced to work from home while many organisations were forced to reduce their working hours following the restrictions like curfews. Kenyans were also forced to live with disruptive measures like lockdown, closure of eateries and bars and travel restrictions.

For nine months learning was disrupted from primary and secondary schools all the way to colleges. Students quickly adopted to online learning while other settle for home schooling. As a result the academic calendar is yet to normalize to date.

Public gatherings were outlawed, religious activities were greatly affected and wearing masks quickly became a lifestyle.

But collectively Kenyans pulled through the crisis. Though the pandemic is not over yet, things are looking up. The new variant omicron is not as devastating as the other variants. While sectors like education are on the way to recovery, others are tourism are yet to pick up.

But with the coming of the vaccine things are looking up. Though we are a long way from the Government’s target of fully vaccinating the adult population of about 30 million by the end of 2022, nevertheless it is a step in the right direction.

This year promises to be a busy year, especially in the run up to the General Election. This year will also see two groups of students in Standard Eight and Form Four sit their national examinations at the same time. All these will test Kenyans to the limit, but as the past year has shown resilience and optimism will carry the day.

The country has been through worse. And we have come a long way since the days of colonialism, struggle for multi-party democracy and we have always come out on top through our resilience and indomitable spirit.

Let us remain true to the words of our National Anthem "...may we dwell in unity, peace and liberty...." throughout this year