Last Friday, Kenya recorded 28 deaths from Covid-19, the highest number of fatalities recorded in a day since the first case of coronavirus was reported in March last year.
We are in the third wave of the pandemic and the situation is getting grimmer by the day. On Sunday, the Health ministry reported 17 Covid-related deaths as the number of people who have succumbed to the disease in the country crossed the 2,000 mark.
In only seven days up to Sunday, 98 people had been killed by Covid-19. We have lost prominent personalities to this pestilence. Kericho Deputy Governor Susan Kikwai died last week. Nakuru Public Health Chief Officer Samuel King’ori also succumbed yesterday, six days after the death of the county’s Deputy Director of Political Affairs Wilfred Chebochok.
The number of infections are similarly on the increase, with the positivity rate hitting 22 per cent yesterday. Our hospitals are full to the rafters with Covid-19 patients. We have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire.
This wave is clearly more infectious and deadlier. Unfortunately, many Kenyans don’t seem to have been rattled enough by the worsening situation.
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There is no doubt that we must start behaving differently if we are to reduce the damage of the current wave. That is what President Uhuru Kenyatta must have realised when he recently banned political gatherings, which were partly blamed for the current wave.
Thankfully, after a year of battling the pandemic, we all know what needs to be done. Unfortunately, there are many people walking in our streets without face masks. There are matatus that are packing passengers like sardines. Matatus no longer have hand sanitisers. Water and soap for handwashing, which the government ordered must be stationed outside every business premise, no longer exist. Offices are packed with workers, some who can work remotely to minimise the risk.
As we warned here during the first wave, it would be foolhardy to trust Kenyans to voluntarily observe the Covid-19 safety measures. So while it is good for the government to remind people to observe the protocols, it must go a step further. It must crack the whip. Local administrators and chiefs must ensure that people in their areas of jurisdiction do everything prescribed by the Health ministry. Needless to say, those who fail to wear face masks or to observe other rules put their lives and those of others in danger. Such people must be arrested and taken to court.
