State team can easily fail the coronavirus test

The Kenyan government on Friday announced the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the country and with it a raft of measures in response. Since, luckily, Kenya joins the club of infected relatively late in the day, it has seen how other countries have reacted and it is fair to draw some parallels with what has happened elsewhere.

At the core of our government’s response is an appeal and expectation that the public will foreground public hygiene and awareness as the key weapon in its arsenal. Hence its call to the public to wash/sanitise their hands, avoid close contact with people exhibiting could-be symptoms of the virus (coughing, sneezing) and avoiding crowded places where transmission is most probable.

This is all OK, but it is hardly reassuring because the hygiene line is not new. Now that a case has been confirmed, the probability of the numbers multiplying exponentially is real. This shifts attention from what we need to do to prevent infection to what will be done post-confirmation.

China has the resources that it used to lock down whole provinces and severely restrict the movements of hundreds of millions of its population. It could and did impose draconian restrictions that seem to be working as the number of new cases is coming down impressively.

South Korea, Italy, Spain and other countries too have either adopted or signalled that they are considering aggressive measures to contain the spread of the virus. The US, when declaring the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, also unleashed a $50 billion combat plan to deal with it. The immediate emphasis there was to facilitate testing of symptoms to confirm the infection and then quickly move on to treatment and management of those infected. Not one to miss the opportunity to play the private sector card, corporate giants like Walmart, Walgreens, Google and the pharmaceutical company Roche were all roped into the effort to reassure the American public.

A Covid-19 testing prototype that Roche had originated and presented to the Federal Drug Administration was tested and approved for market in record time and the company is expected to provide hundreds of thousands (and then millions) immediately to facilitate testing.

Google is to unveil an application that an individual can use, through answering some questions, to determine whether they should go for testing and the nearest testing facility. Kenya is in no position to deploy and call upon such extensive public and private-sector resources but it can and must unveil a strategy that has a clear trajectory. Health CS Mutahi Kagwe and the emergency team he leads to respond to this global pandemic invoked the Public Health Act but he did not elaborate what it means and what the public can expect in the coming days.

That Act, inter alia, allows the minister to interfere quite extensively with the freedom of movement of the people, the right to control one’s health and body, privacy and property rights. But there is more that needs to be done. How much money is the government directing to the Covid-19 menace? How is the government facilitating easy testing for everyone that feels the need to test? What could a lockdown scenario look like? What are we doing about the high-risk, heavily populated, poor urban areas? Do we have enough masks? Hand sanitisers? What is the role of the private sector here? Etc., etc.

Wars are won by proactive strategies. This virus presents a truly stern test for our leaders. They must not be found wanting.

Tom Mshindi is a former editor-in-chief at Nation Media Group and is now consulting;, @tmshindi)