It all ends in tears after memes fail to sway president

By last weekend, the countdown had begun. People were waiting for the speech that would “declare their freedom”. Online and off the Internet, talk was on the things that people wanted to do once the cessation of movement, put in place to contain spread of Covid-19, was lifted. It had been more than two months of restricted movement and curfew, and Kenyans were hoping for change as President Uhuru Kenyatta delivered his eagerly awaited speech from State House yesterday.

There were those who longed to walk into a bar in the darkness of night. There they would caress the frothy bottles of their favourite drinks and stagger out at the first strike of dawn like they used to before coronavirus struck. There were those who wanted to travel out of town to see their loved ones after the sudden separation that came a few days before Easter. Others craved for when they would not have to hurry home, their hearts beating with anxiety, hoping to beat the 6:59:59 stroke of the clock before falling into the hands of police for violating curfew.