The government recently started providing legal forms to compel anyone getting into the country to self-isolate and commit to it.
But over the weekend, it was reported that a deputy governor in Kenya will be charged for failing to self-isolate after jetting into the country from Berlin, Germany. The official obviously interacted with scores of citizens, his family, staff members and other government officials.
But citizens are on his case condemning him for putting Kenyans' lives at risk. The same citizens who are flocking nightclubs and the streets despite the directive to stay at home to contain the virus.
Taming this deadly pandemic starts with everyone on an individual level. Adhering to safety measures given by health experts will go a long way in reducing the spread of the Covid-19 disease – washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, keeping a distance of at least one metre from any person, coughing and sneezing into a tissue or one's elbow and sanitising often.
But Kenyans still want to shake hands and 'party after party' in the middle of a global crisis. They want to use the free days they have from work or school to meet up with friends and family where they unknowingly spread the virus whose symptoms may not show during the first days of infection.
'I am young, I'm safe from it' is what the young generation is saying. But they can still transmit the disease to the older, more vulnerable generation. No one is safe from the virus. An 18-year-old became the youngest person to be killed by the virus in the UK.
Let Kenyans practise the measures recommended to contain the virus including staying at home unless they absolutely have to go out. This is the only way to ensure the pandemic – or ignorance to it – does not wipe out the whole population in the worst-case scenario.
Nairobi
