Some women are seen collecting and washing used masks for resale.
As Covid19 wrecks havock across the world and experts warnings that 28,000 people would die in Kenya alone if preventative measures are not taken, some people have opted to a rather careless and deliberate way of sending others to the grave.
A few days ago, the world was treated to a news item where a group of merry makers ferried an empty coffin from Nairobi to Homabay in order to avoid police arrests. They did all these to break the country wide curfew and President Uhuru’s cessation orders. Those in the cast tested positive for Covid19. They thought their ignorance and failure to obey the law would hurt Hon Mutahi Kagwe instead.
In the latest incident, a group of hawkers have been collecting used masks which end up being sold again in the streets. This is a death bed and should be codemned and some punitive action taken against the perpetrators of the killer action.
When President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta took office in the early 60s, he had 4 main agendas that are still pending 50 years after. Mzee’s main focus was to fight “Ugonjwa (disease), Umasikini (poverty), Ufisadi (corruption) and Ujinga (ignorance and illiteracy)”.
We as a nation must work towards fighting Ignorance and illiteracy, corruption and poverty or else, Kenya will be a forgotten country especially with the rise of stronger economies that sorround us.
The Covid19 should be a wakeup call for the policy makers to enter in the shoes of the poor mother trying to get some food for her children, with a rented house to be paid and some medical bill on the table. We must pull together in the Harambee spirit and bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots or else the nation goes into civil strife necessitated by poverty.
The Bible gives a story of some 4 lepers who in 2 Kings 7:4 said If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’–the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
