Only discipline will save us from coronavirus pandemic
We could be facing a great moment of crisis and facing it in a vacuum of leadership and role modeling!
The ravages of novel Covid 19 show no signs of slowing down from the face of it.
As a colleague recently commented, nearly everybody today knows somebody, or has heard of somebody they know who has tested positive for the virus.
Some of the casualties have been very public individuals – people who have talked to us from the safety of television screens.
Our scientists may have more qualitative information regarding the trajectory of the pandemic.
Unfortunately, in the media, we have had more quantitative information sometimes with little context to help us understand the trajectory.
Five months ago, when the first case was reported in the country the government mobilised quickly and gave confidence that it was on top of the situation.
But since then there is reason for doubts that the government resolve is still intact.
There are warnings by those charged with managing the pandemic that there are enough people within the corridors of the disease management offices with long hands intent on siphoning away the resources that have been mobilised for the purposes of staving off the disease.
This is the country’s Achilles heels that our public officials often consider their workstations as the source of their capital for building their private empires. Their talk and deed seldom synchronise.
Those managing the resources aside, the other danger has been with those managing public emotions – the army of politicians and the custodians of our culture.
It is almost as if our fealty to culture and political future is more important than the lives of those we seek to influence.
Those given to elaborate funerals find it difficult to countenance changes to their elaborate cultural practices. Some have continued to behave as if nothing changed.
The custodians of rites of passage have equally continued as if nothing happened.
The circumcisers of western Kenya have had the courage to dare the government. They are not alone.
They have been encouraged in their path by the actions of politicians. The government had been clear with the rules regarding holding of meetings and other public gatherings.
These have not changed. Children can tick them off their fingers: Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water or sanitise, wear face masks, keep physical distance, stay at home – Kenyans know these guidelines.
But if anybody has been at the forefront of violating them then it is the politicians.
When the government had locked down the city, the politicians still found a way to move around.
When government established lockdowns and stopped the public from moving around and holding gatherings, it was the politicians that first set those rules aside and continued as if nothing had happened.
In that sense it is hard to force the public to behave differently since we cannot continue preaching water and drinking wine. Those in leadership are influencers.
The world is racing to secure a vaccine or a cure, but we do not know when these efforts will be successful and even when they are, it will be hard to predict when such vaccine or cure will be available.
The big economies will have their share first and only when they are saturated will the others come into line.
Whether we will have sufficient resources to access these vaccines is another matter.
Our best security for now is in our discipline. But we have shown very little of it. The political class must lead us in this path of discipline.
Politicians often disappoint, but it would have been hard to think that they would disappoint in this one too.
However, they have lived up to their billing. That is our tragedy. — The writer is Dean, School of Communication, Daystar University
