OKORE: Eviction in a pandemic is so inhuman

There are many reasons why we should be cautious of how language is used, most importantly because language determines actions whose consequences are felt by those among us who have no protection. 

How we describe things determines how we respond and we’ve seen this unfold negatively in the way in which vulnerable people continue to be treated during this pandemic period. 

From the onset, the language and words used were “militaristic” leading to phrases like fighting the war against coronavirus.

This may seem like a simple issue of interpretation but when the national baseline thinking is declaring war on a novel virus without the understanding that it is people who are at the centre, who are we actually declaring war on if not the people who contract this very virus? 

Consequently, because a war on a virus was declared, police enforced government directives with insurmountable brutality and zero space for dialogue. 

EVICTIONS

Any kind of strategy that could’ve made for a humane, dignified and decent response was intentionally left out.

This militaristic thinking is what leads to the punitive action taken against families who have currently been evicted from their homes in Kariobangi and Ruai.

These people are claimed to have been occupying government-owned land that’s supposed to be cleared for an upcoming sewage treatment plant, which doesn’t warrant their cruel eviction. 

Their houses were demolished with no plan of where they are to seek refuge. They were left to fend for themselves at a time when coronavirus has disrupted their daily income sources and they can’t leave Nairobi to go upcountry due to the ongoing county movement restrictions. 

What then are poor people supposed to do in a situation where leadership that’s tasked with caring for them becomes their primary burden? 

NEW APPROACH

Why are evictions something that vulnerable people are coerced to face during this time and if evictions are inevitable, aren’t there ways of carrying them out without exacerbating the dire positions of people? What about timing, is this the best time to evict anyone?

These homeless families have been sleeping outside in the cold with Nairobi rains in plenty, no shelter, toilets, clean water and food. 

This kind of treatment is a result of directives that are tone-deaf on people’s realities and reality in general. 

If truly the war is against coronavirus then the ways in which Kenyan leadership is speaking, engaging and implementing its directives require new foundational thinking like Khaled Hosseini says: “War doesn't negate decency. It demands it, even more than in times of peace." 

The indignity and indecency with which vulnerable people keep experiencing leadership is not what leadership is or should be.

Scheaffer Okore is a policy analyst;