Bated breath as Uhuru set to address surge in Covid-19 cases

All eyes are on President Uhuru Kenyatta (pictured) as he holds a crucial meeting with stakeholders that is aimed at reviewing Covid-19 measures.

The meeting follows a recent surge in coronavirus cases with deaths topping the 1,000th mark.

Uhuru, in the meeting with governors, will agree on how to contain the virus. This means the country could revert to stricter containment measures to control the spread of Covid-19.

In his opening remarks at the Covid-19 summit at State House in Nairobi, Uhuru admitted that Kenyans had relaxed and failed short of giving their best in the fight against the virus and it’s now up to the leaders to draft a way on how to handle the situation.

“Leadership is not a position but the actions we take. We must exercise collective leadership to fight this virus. We must choose the bold over the popular,” he said.

He pointed out curfew times and drinking places are among the weak points in the virus spread.

Council of Governor Chair Wycliffe Oparanya said medics had been affected, after some contracted the virus and others had died, thus derailing the fight against the virus.

Oparanya has recommended adjustments on the nationwide curfew to start from 9pm to 4am for one month until the curve flattens. "We cannot talk about economic recovery without flattening the curve."

“Your Excellency, the Council of Governors recommends that all containment protocols be implemented in their original form. We request that the nationwide curfew currently in force be varied from 11pm to 9pm,” Oparanya said, while urging the president to penalise politicians flouting Covid-19 rules.

On Sunday, President Uhuru admitted that there have been discussions on the best measures to take in the wake of the increasing infections and deaths from the virus.

Among the options the president said the government has been battling with- is whether to re-impose a lockdown as they did at the beginning of the pandemic.

“We are going through that difficult time where we are now wondering what to do. Do we close up? We shall be coming back to that. Not today, but soon,” he said.

He said Covid-19 was a serious problem and he was worried that the numbers have been growing over the last few weeks.

He emphasised that when they were reopening the economy, they advised that people take personal responsibility to prevent the spread of the virus. But most people have disregarded the basic rules such as social distancing, sanitising and wearing masks.

His remarks have been echoed by Health CS Mutahi Kagwe, who attributed the surge to failure by a majority of Kenyans to adhere to the Ministry of Health guidelines.

Kagwe had revealed that counties that had a very low rate of Covid-19 infections and seemed to be on their way to stamping out the virus, had suddenly made a turn for the worse.

“I wish to make a passionate appeal and plead with you to save yourself and save our country. The more people get infected the more we are going to have more problems,” he said, with reports that hospitals were getting overwhelmed.

Some have attributed the rising numbers to the increased number of political activities in the country- where the measures are disregarded.

Kenya was on a partial lockdown since March until July. The president announced the lapse of the cessation of movement into and out of the Nairobi metropolitan area, Mombasa and Mandera counties on July 7, 2020.

Domestic commercial and passenger flights resumed on July 15 while international travel resumed from August 1.

Places of worship were allowed to host services again, but for a maximum of an hour with only 100 worshippers allowed at a time.

The Head of State lifted the six-month suspension of operations in all bars and clubs and adjusted the curfew hours.

As of Tuesday, the country had recorded 57,093 cases with 1,039 deaths since March when the first case was reported.