BY MICHAEL BONAYA
On 20th October during the Mashujaa Day memorial, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced in his speech that the dusk to dawn curfew in the country between 4am to 10pm would officially be lifted. Kenyans celebrated the announcement by the President that the Covid-19 curfew would be lifted allowing people to move around in the country freely after the previously enforced 10pm restriction.
Kenyans on social media did not disappoint, taking the opportunity to make memes about the lifting of the curfew.
Business owners in the country across different sectors received the announcement with relief as the curfew had ravaged their commercial activities.
Bar and nightclub owners in the country were especially relieved to hear the news since their businesses mainly run during the dusk to dawn period.
Robert, a manager at a bar and nightclub in Karen, Nairobi stated that the number of his premises had increased almost immediately after the Mashujaa Day announcement with revelers coming out in high numbers to socialize and enjoy the extended nightclub and enjoy the extended nightclub deadline which was pushed from 10pm to 12pm.
A few revelers I spoke to unanimously said that they were thrilled by the opportunity to come out to their local popular hangout spots and catch up with friends late into the night after the lengthy Covid-19 restrictions.
Transport operators in the country also reported an increase in the number of travelers plying their routes since the President’s announcement, likely due to the overall increase in various activities enabled by the lifted restrictions. Dr. Githinji Gitahi, CEO of AMREF Kenya posted the following tweet:
NEGATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF COVID RESTRICTIONS
According to a blog published on the economic the London School of Economics website, in a phone survey of 2,739 small retailers in and around Nairobi, researchers gathered evidence of the economic effects of Covid-19, and the effects of subsequent government actions. The responses suggest widespread negative impacts on business activity and household well-being, with little or no assistance from the government, NGOs or other entities.
Most of the retailers surveyed sold basic foodstuffs including dairy products, household items, and fast moving consumer goods.
The results of the Covid-19 survey show that many of the small businesses in the sample were negatively affected by Covid-19, either directly or as a result of government policies to limit the spread of the virus. Such negative impacts on livelihoods – including job losses, reduced business operations and incomes, disrupted supply chains – are unintended (if not unforeseen) consequences of the fight to protect lives.
In his speech on Mashujaa Day, the President said the following about the economy, “We are not yet out of the woods and we must therefore continue to observe containment measures…to sustain the gains we are making and guarantee the full re-opening of our economy.”
Kenya has received 7.5 million doses of vaccines and at least 4.5 million people have been vaccinated so far according to Deloitte. He told officials to ensure that a processing plant for Covid-19 vaccines started operating in Kenya by April next year.
The announcement of the curfew came after Kenya’s Health Ministry observed a decrease in infection rates in the country with less than 5% in the country per day turning out positive.
OMICRON VARIANT
The high spirits from the government’s announcement were dampened shortly as a new and possibly more dangerous strain of the virus was found by doctors in South Africa, just a month after the President’s order. The Ministry of Health Kenya and Kenyans are now worried about how to limit the more undetectable variant.
2 months after the President’s announcement Kenya is still grappling with the new strain of the virus, which was first recorded in South Africa, dubbed ‘Omicron’, which presents with slightly more severe symptoms than previous Covid-19 variants.
The new variant generally causes symptoms such as headache, high fever, dry cough, scratchy throat, a high pulse rate, tiredness and body aches. It does not cause the more common symptoms of the virus such as difficulty breathing and loss of smell/taste, making it harder to identify as its symptoms mimic common flu symptoms.
On December 18th, Kenya’s Health Minister, Mutahi Kagwe, announced that the daily Covid testing had found 2000 positive results, with 27 individuals having been found with the Omicron variant. The ministry also reported that not all the people who tested positive for the new strain had travelled into the country recently, meaning the new strain is now being transmitted through the community.
Since first being detected in South Africa, the Omicron variant has been found in test samples across the world, with the WHO emphasizing the need to be on guard against the pandemic, insisting on the jab as an effective way to contain the virus. Since the announcement of the Omicron strain, more Kenyans have flocked to vaccination centers to get the protective dose, out of fear of the reportedly more deadly strain.
Although the Omicron strain has been discovered to be less fatal than initially thought, veteran Kenyan Public Health expert Dr. Richard Ayah, has warned Kenyans to remain cautious as the ongoing mutations show that there is still a lot that is still unknown about the Covid virus.
Dr. Ayah is a member of the taskforce on Covid-19 vaccine deployment, a don at the University of Nairobi and head of the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence.
At an online meeting organised by the Media Council of Kenya he said “Studies in South Africa and Israel show it does not cause severe illness and does not induce mortality.”
“So far, Omicron has greater transmissibility than Delta. There are still many people who are vulnerable because not so many people are vaccinated here… The issue was that more people were getting infected, which means if more vulnerable people get sick, then more people die,”,” he said.
He urged Kenyans to continue masking, sanitizing and avoiding crowding, especially as we approach the festive period.
