From the official data transmitted by the Ministry of Health in the first few days of the year and from the objective situation found in hospitals and mortuaries, we can say that the Kenyan coast has so far held up well to the impact of the arrival of thousands of tourists, mainly local and from African countries, between Mombasa, Diani, Watamu and Malindi.
The numbers transmitted in the last few days speak for themselves: only one death in the last 48 hours and the percentage of cases due to swabs reduced to a minimum, between 3 and 4%.
Very few symptomatic cases and intensive care units that are progressively emptying all over the country. Even the cases in the coastal counties, Kilifi and Mombasa in particular, which a few weeks ago had caused concern with numbers surpassed only by the capital Nairobi, are practically zero, as is the return of optimism among health workers in Malindi and surrounding areas.
All this despite the spread of eloquent images on social media showing daytime beach parties with thousands of people crowded together without the slightest social distance and almost all without masks. This happened mainly at Nyali, Shanzu Beach and Bamburi, the three beaches in Mombasa most frequented by Kenyans.
But even in international tourist destinations, not everyone was respectful of the protocols still in place. Inside the hotels and in the restaurants the restrictions were felt but in public areas and in general in daily life there was no sign of any special attention to the so-called 'second wave'.
Whether all this will lead to a resurgence of cases and worrying official numbers in the coming days, or whether it will suggest that the unwritten and planned but natural herd immunity will prove the Kenyan people right, remains to be seen.
On the other hand, the catastrophic proclamations of the World Health Organisation and of those who, often in good faith, were worried about Africa based on their personal experience as citizens of the West, and still flood the social networks with proclamations and invectives against those who, even on the Kenyan coast, call for a rigidity that can never be.
To posterity, and never to the posts, the arduous judgment.