When people face overwhelm they tend
to look for alcoholic drink to assuage their
anxiety and forget their worries, if you
drink heavily alone you are an alcoholic
but meeting your pals at the bar for a drink
is therapeutic. Unfortunately alcohol and
social distancing are mutually exclusive.
So all the places that people enjoy, places
where they express their freedom of
association are closed. Add to that the
curfew in place and Kenyans are slowly
going cranky but not because they are
confined in a literal sense.
Nobody has stopped Kenyans from
learning from home and certainly prayer
does not become more portent in a house
of prayer. Drinking has not been outlawed
and one can drink to their fill in the house
without being a drunken driving danger
to others.
But the all-important freedom to
associate has been curtailed and it has
turned the whole of Kenya into an open
prison. You had inter-county movement
restrictions and international fights were
not permitted. It is a lock-down with
limited movement.
When you live in danger for so long the
human mind starts to rationalize the
environment to try and find a new coping
mechanism which we are calling the new
normal. In our case it is taking a rather
dangerous tangent which we need to
address.
There is a narrative going around on
the social media that the corona virus
is not real but a government construct
that is designed to enable ‘them’ to get
international funding to control a disease
that does not actually exist.
From the outset we would like to
congratulate the genius in government
who has managed to attract a substantial
funding for a disease that does not exist.
There seems to be many international
idiots with more money than sense
looking to be conned by Kenyans.
To back their argument they ask whether
you know any Kenyan with corona or even
whether you know anyone who knows
anyone who has it. On that basis Kenyans
have decided that Kagwe figures are
manufactured and he is the PR manager
for the ‘eaters’.
This asinine argument has convinced
Kenyans to throw caution to the wind and
tempt fate by starting to flaunt the safety
rules that are designed to keep us safe.
The fact that we do not personally know
anybody with HIV does not mean it does
not exist.
We have even started hearing the doubters
declare that without freedom death is
preferable and we sincerely hope that this
is false bravado since all the measures that
the government has taken is to keep death
at bay and to stop people endangering
others.
We need to curb these street experts who
are going to compromise the government’s
effort to contain the pandemic. It is the
public misbehavior that will ensure that the
pandemic lasts longer and the subsequent
economic consequences harsher.
If Thomas requires proof that the disease
exists ask him to go to Mbagathi or at the
very least talk to any hospital to verify his
assertions. We cannot afford the luxury of
allowing the social media to be the goto
reference point on matters of national
import.
We need to be aware that people are
reacting to the confinement and not the
disease, but unfortunately to control the
disease you have to confine. We also need
to be aware that the confinement is more
psychological than real.
It is human nature to crave to do the things
that are forbidden. The fact that one can
leave Nairobi did not result in an exodus.
It is just psychologically comforting to
know that should one want to leave they
can leave hence reasserting our freedom
of choice.
Give me freedom or give me death was a
battle cry for the oppressed not the sick!
The legal caveat not to drink and drive is
not only meant to protect the drunkard
but those whose lives are endangered by
his condition. You don’t know whether
you have the virus, so keep your distance
and wear a mask!
ltd