COVID Camouflage
I met a beautiful Kikuyu lady a few weeks ago. She has been making my days lately. We jump from good conversations to assumptions of being mad. Her last name sounds almost like Wanjiku (they all sound like Wanjiku anyway). And this reminds me, I need to write something about “Wanjiku” and Covid 19 Pandemic. So let’s take a tolĺ.
Wanjiku, as the nation Kenya been referred to, over the past few decades, has showed two sides of the coin during this pandemic. There were times that Kenya teteered on the age of a gaping abyss and it’s citizens; when the people here in Kenya and the people abroad alike, saw nothing other than an imminent slide of a great nation into a failed state.
These were the days when a pen cost KES 8,000/- in a ministry’s audit, when people took tenders to supply oxygen, when only 6% of donor funds for HIV/AID’s pandemic fight went to the actual fight while the reminder went on the lavish lifestyles of the tribunal officials, when we borrowed loans to pay loans. These are days that we hardly want to remember.
In the wee months of 2020 people merried. People set goals. Pastors preached large sermons on double blessings. People seemed to have had it all planned till December. Then the pandemic happened. Disrupted the plans, deprived some people their loved ones, their jobs and we were confined in our homes, the perfect zone for sitting and reflecting. And as we sit at home, our minds are doing comparisons between now and what have been before, it’s true that droughts and pandemics have been cash cows for pandemic entrepreneurs over the decades and I am convinced that this will be no different.
MJ wrote a beautiful piece on happiness, I want to talk about kindness and the true Kenyan spirit and on the other hand, camouflage and the “true” government spirit during this pandemic. The two sides of the coin.
The world is living in unprecedented times, where kindness is a very rare word, but when we talk about the three women in Machakos, who contribute money everyday to purchase and cook food, to feed the officers manning the roadblocks, we see kindness. When we talk about Caroline Makena, the 29 year old police officer who makes free masks for Kenyans at her own free time, we see a Kenyan spirit. Have we forgotten about the landlord from Kinangop? The Mzee who wavered off 2 months rent for his tenants and started supplying them with food? That, to me, bold kindness! When we talk about the healthworkers who are in the frontlines with meagre protective gears, containing the pandemic, we see a Kenyan spirit! And the list is endless.
JF Kennedy said that as a people we are born equal.We can do what we can, where we are ,with what we have to better the world. And as kind Kenyans are doing what they can with what they have, and the rest of general population abiding by the set rules and guidelines during this pandemic, a group of Kenyans privileged to hold certain positions are using this a camouflage to enrich the “true government spirit”.
Far be it from my article to lam at the government. I’m not among the ones who writes to sass the government, however I’m among the ones to gives a see through of the government’s operations through writing, should this article perform either of those functions, I’m chilled.
The common Kenyans excuse of “we will meet,we will do when Rona ishaaz” has graduated into the government chambers but with a new name , everything is justified by a single line “..ni juu ya hii corona”. We have exclusively been driven to think in one pool, corona. At the expense of our rights, our beliefs and even our lives as a people. The camouflage the government has taken with this disease will cause more harm, if it has not caused already, than the disease itself.
Talk about Law; article 51 of the Constitution provides for the right of Harbeas corpus. That an arrested person ought to be produced before a court of Law within 24 hours of his arrest failure of which the right of harbeas corpus applies. We have seen citizens arrested and confined forcefully into quarantine facilities, violating their Constitutional rights, “juu ya hii corona.”
Talk about the landslides in Elgeyo Marakwet, West Pokot and even the more recent ones in Kisii. It apalled souls when the victims of the landslides went on a search of their own to retrieve the bodies their loved ones, without even a single government aid, “juu gava inadeal na hii corona”.
The news flash of floods all over the country; floods in Baringo , Budalangi , Kisumu, North Eastern… the people have their houses swept, they have no food, nowhere to sleep , nothing to wear, and government that oughts to have provided that, hasn’t “juu ya hii corona”.
It saddens you more that in that fight of corona virus, with 1B donation from the world bank, 70 million is allocated communication (do not forget that all media houses air news on corona for FREE) while 7 counties are still being listed on vulnerability list for lack of PPE’s. That in that actual fight, 4 million is allocated for tea and snacks while residents of Umoja still take to media, their water shortage problems, at this time that water is a core need. That in the actual fight, two cargo flights are sent to take flowers to England to encourage and condole with them while our healthworkers only receive some mediocre 12 noon claps for appreciation. That in the actual fight, 1 million is allocated for artistry, while people sleep hungry in the slums!. True Government spirit.
But as Barack Mùluka says, a government where the most precious currency is BETRAYAL, where pandemics are the major cash cows for entrepreneurs, Knowledge was the least tool applied in their fight of wars. Sips tea, I need to text my Kikuyu lady now.
- Max Ogola
