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Marketing Africa
02 MAL35/20 ISSUE
On Social Security
W
e have a new word in our lexicon called a lockdown
and it has its roots in medical isolation to help contain
a contagious disease. However the side effects of a
lockdown have economic and social ramifications that a nation has
to deal with.
We are of course familiar with partial lockdowns as was witnessed
by Kibera and Mathare residents when the area was cordoned off
to keep angry voters who were protesting ‘stolen elections’. It was
possible to contain the rioters so we do have some experience in the
logistics of the activity.
What we are going through at the moment is also a partial lockdown
known as a curfew where the country tries to keep Kenyans from
the bar. We do also have some experience in this as the 1982 coup
attempt resulted in a curfew mainly to ensure malcontents did not
regroup for night meetings.
When America and Kenya are considering a lockdown, in this case
caused by the same issue, the fundamental considerations are very
different and this is something we have to discuss and appreciate
hoping we don’t have to bite that bullet in any near future.
If America was to declare a nationwide emergency and implement
a lockdown, the president would ask the congress to release billions
of dollars for disaster management to shore up the country until
normalcy can be restored and the economy reopened.
Even before the dreaded lockdown stimulus packages have been
approved to ensure that the demand side of the economic equation
is maintained even though movement is restricted to enable the
economy coast through the forced inactivity.
America would be putting thousands of dollars’ worth of ‘free’
money in the hands of its citizens to ensure they have spending
power otherwise the back spiral of collapsed demand will bring
down the economy with an unprecedented crash.
The sector that would take a hit would be the health sector as it
would not be able to cope with a huge influx of sick people and
thanks to the rollback on Obamacare in which he was trying to
ensure all Americans have access to quality healthcare, many would
be excluded especially the undocumented.
Unfortunately for Americans the virus does not discriminate and
cares little about status and the anti-immigrant lobby is in a quandary
since America would be fighting a geographical containment not a
political one. They all survive in a locality or all perish.
In Kenya a total lockdown would not be an emergency it would be
a disaster since our economy cannot sustain such an impact. Our
‘kadogo’ economy is based on daily cash transactions in a basically
hand to mouth existence. Kenyans are daily hustlers.
Kenya does not have any substantive reserves to offer a mass
stimulus package to the economy since in all past disasters we have
turned to the donor community for assistance. We have developed