- When Uhuru recently chaired am emergency National Security Council meeting to discuss Covid-19, Ruto was missing...
- And, just to make sure his absence was no small matter in its meaning, a photo was leaked to confirm Ruto is all but politically finished.
Kenyan media, like all others in the rest of the world, have put politics on the back burner as all focus and talk is about the coronavirus pandemic.
But that doesn’t mean there is no politics going on; rather, politics is alive and well and one form of the proof, is the continued sidelining Deputy President William Ruto.
Before analysing that, it’s important to note as a public service that concerning the coronavirus those working in the medical field, say historically, misinformation becomes a byproduct of the natural response that people have to a major disaster such as Covid-19.
There’s a lot of unCovid-19certainty about the impact of the event and what actions we can take to respond to it. That uncertainty contributes to anxiety, and in those conditions of high uncertainty and anxiety, people try to come up with things to make sense of what’s going on, or to participate in what is referred to as collective sensemaking.
Rumoring is a part of that, as people try to find the best information. This sometimes leads to distrust between the population and the medical community as there’s conflicting information shared, and sometimes outright false information, especially in social media, which leads to further spreading the disease.
So, it is important to equip yourself and share information with family and friends as home care is an important part of any response so providing good information to families and communities on how to care for the sick and when to seek care will be an important component of this response.
There’s a need to disseminate as much information as possible to the public about the nature of the virus and the response, to allay community suspicion and mistrust. Social media makes this task much easier so let’s all take advantage and be prepared to save the continent in the event the spread of the virus is not contained.
Knowing and sharing preventive measures one must take to prevent the spread of the virus is good enough and these measures include, using a tissue for coughs and sneezes and properly disposing of the tissue after use such as putting it in the trash, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched objects and surfaces, staying home when sick, except to get medical care and washing hands often with hot water for about 20 seconds or use sanitizer gel.
Taking these basic steps will go a long way to stop the pandemic but governments have their work cut out for them, especially in ensuring other measures such as testing and social distancing enforcement.
While we’re doing all this to combat the spread of this deadly virus, those in the system who don’t want to see Ruto as president are busy doing their part to make sure this is the case, namely, dashing Ruto’s ambitions to succeed Uhuru as our next president.
Although the president has tried to at times project things are normal between he and Ruto, clearly there has been a steady worsening and public projection of big writings on the wall that things are far much worse than just having an icy relationship that can thaw anytime.
There’s no thawing of Uhuru’s relationship with Ruto.
When Uhuru recently chaired am emergency National Security Council meeting to discuss Covid-19, Ruto was missing at this critical meeting and, just to make sure his absence was no small matter in its meaning, a photo was leaked to confirm Ruto is all but politically finished.
Ruto knows this is the case but is making lats-gasp efforts to maintain some relevance or in the hopes he can somehow position himself as the greatest come-back kid to defeat the system and become our next president.
The irony of it is, Ruto was in Nandi the other day engaging in politics while denying he was not engaging politics. That kind of talk is in the least disingenuous and part of the reason people don’t believe what politicians say, more so Ruto who might as well up and declare political war against Uhuru before the latter fully finishes him politically.
Legal analyst and political commentator