• A handful of leaders have stood out for special mention amongst them governors Hassan Joho, Charity Ngilu and CS Mutahi Kagwe
• The same cannot be said of the Tangatanga and Kieleweke brigades, who all suddenly went AWOL in the face of a severe crisis,
Image: FILE
“Around 2020, a severe pneumonia like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments.”
This was predicted by Silvia Browne in his movie thriller Contagion with alarming accuracy.
The world had been warned of a virus infection similar to Covid 19, even in a scholarly article “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus as an Agent of Emerging and Re-Emerging Infection" published in the Clinical Microbiology Review.
Vincent C Cheng and others argued, “The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV like viruses in horse-shoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic animals in Southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore, the need for preparedness should not be ignored."
The red-flag warnings were ignored as coincidences or rants of crazy scientists. One of the few world leaders who took the reports and warnings seriously was former US President Barack Obama. He had the presence of mind to prepare a “disaster preparedness Cabinet Paper in event of a highly infectious virus attack”, which he handed over to his successor, Donald Trump, who allegedly trashed it!
As a result of our power hungry leaders being impervious to reason and or lacking plain common sense, planet Earth is now in a severe crisis, the severest since World War 2.
Indeed, the earth has been brought to a standstill and is in lockdown or semi-lockdown mode. There is death and fear all around, with education institutions, stadia, airports, movie theaters, restaurants and hotels now empty.
People are living in a world they never envisaged in their lifetimes. Walking around wearing face masks and suspicious of one another. Most people are locked up within the confines of their homes. The true meaning of the term freedom hitherto considered an abstract legal term coming to the fore. These, for sure, these are testing times.
On the local scene President Uhuru Kenyatta, to his credit, stepped up to his plate and took immediate control of the situation by implementing emergency measures to control the spread of the virus.
A nationwide curfew, partial lockdowns, social distancing, mass testing and quarantine and isolation treatment centres in hospitals and other institutions have saved legions of Kenyans from an abrupt, painful and premature demise.
If the stunts Kenyans are carrying out to circumvent emergency measures (including fake funerals and pursuit of illegal panya routes) are true, then it goes without saying that we are a reckless, irresponsible, thoughtless, immoral stiff-necked people.
A handful of Cabinet secretaries, senators and governors have stood out for special mention amongst them Mombasa county boss Hassan Joho, Charity Ngilu (Kitui) and Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja. Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe is a beacon, a no-nonsense, hands on crisis manager and a man equal to the task.
The same cannot be said of the Tangatanga and Kieleweke brigades, who all suddenly went AWOL in the face of a severe national and international crisis, and when they came back, it was about Jubilee politics. Their collective behaviour is nothing short of disgraceful.
Had they employed the time and resources they have spent in a political internecine war in the last year in combating the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of lives would not be at risk as is the case now. Instead they put their tails between their legs and skunked.
They have absconded their responsibility and should rest assured that constituents have noted their absence. What they may not be aware of is that this pandemic will determine the next election nationally and internationally.
President Trump has already run into severe political headwinds out of his incompetent, careless, reckless, unsympathetic and almost juvenile handling of the crisis.
Political heads will roll locally in the 2022 presidential and parliamentary elections and the time to stand up and be counted is now.
Our local shepherds (read MPs and MCA’s) have abandoned their flock in the face of real and existing danger. It is now known to all and sundry that the interest of the bulk of our MPs and MCAs is in acquiring and retaining power.
The welfare /interests of the electorate is secondary.