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EDITORIAL

Restrictions, what Kenyatta could say today

New decision after the meeting with MP's and Governors

04-11-2020 by Freddie del Curatolo

Today, presumably this afternoon, the President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, will give new indications to the country on how to continue in an attempt to contain as much as possible the infections, hospitalizations and deaths linked to the Covid-19 virus.
Containment, which has been carried out fairly successfully for the past eight months, mainly due to the first two months of lockdown in some regions, the closure of international airports and curfews from 7 to 5 a.m. and the decision to slowly reopen the economy until the internal reopening in July and the one with the world on 1 August.
But the real watershed, for the Government, was represented by the last reopening, what we could define as "social". After the economy and the movement (and therefore tourism as well), bars, places of worship and some schools have been reopened, and the number of people gathered has increased from a maximum of 15 to 100 and then to 200.
All this was done in order to return to a normal dimension, but at the same time the Government warned that these choices had to be taken as privileges and that they were subordinate to the respect of the three fundamental rules of virus prevention, which we are not going to repeat for the umpteenth time. Just as the overwhelming majority of Kenyans did not respect the rules previously, they continued to disregard them and at the same time to frequent public places, markets and other places of aggregation without any retention. Just as we will not remember that it is difficult for many people to observe hygiene rules when it is difficult to have access to clean water, to stay at home when 6 people live in a hut or worse in a sheet metal shack.
The fact is that October has been the record month of cases and deaths for Kenya and now the Government will have to say something to its citizens.  
What will Kenyatta decide today, after listening to the advice and requests of parliamentarians and governors of the 47 counties?
Their options are already on the table of the Head of State: stricter rules to be enforced and above all order to the Security and Public Order Department to enforce them, bar to be closed immediately and a longer curfew. The associations of public places and those of alcohol retailers have already put their hands ahead, blaming the Government for not providing them with precise protocols to respect.
The Government, according to reports, until a few days ago there was the intention to "hit one to educate a hundred", but some now think back to the iron fist.
In any case, there would not be the will to close the country, even though some counties might see new restrictions delivered.
Kenya's need, also with respect to the worldwide pandemic trend and the consideration by other countries that then reveals itself to be open to tourism, to trust in import-export and to return to investing, is to lower the percentage of cases per buffer. Fluctuating between 15 and 20% is unacceptable, because hypothetically it means that one in five Kenyans is contagious and in practice it means that those who are positive have had too many opportunities to pass on the Covid-19 to contacts who are then examined. Not to mention that while there is an increase in hospitalization cases, public health facilities are still not equipped enough to receive any progressive increase in the number of patients.
This is why, given the need not to stop the economy, Kenya will have to take some restrictive and consequently unpopular decisions, again damaging some categories of workers and putting at risk wages and the survival of activities that are already not doing well.
We will know more in a few hours.

TAGS: decisioni kenyarestrizioni kenyapresidente kenyapandemia kenya

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