Kenya, although the daily data on infectious diseases are not particularly alarming, is experiencing a moment of concern over the tenacity and accommodation capacity of its health facilities and has rightly given priority to the creation of beds and isolation wards in each county.
The health emergency that the Ministry of Health is managing in the best possible way is matched by the difficulty of the other governmental apparatuses that are struggling to make decisions that can give optimism to the sectors that, with the right controls and stakes, could already start up again exactly as countries around the world that present even three times the daily cases and up to twenty times the deaths in one day of Kenya (for example, Italy).
The risk of a second wave, which for Kenya would simply be the peak of the first, still in progress, is not to be underestimated but the continuation of the economic crisis in a country of Sub-Saharan Africa may mean hunger and consequent revolts, but also other consequent diseases that would paralyze even more health care.
In Marsabit County the semi-nomadic populations, who for some time (think of Samburu and Pokoth) have been living a sort of "cold war", have come back to dig up the axe and kill themselves for the watering of the cattle and the cultivated fields (yesterday at least 4 dead and 20 injured), in the Tana River area there is the risk of the same recrudescence.
In the border areas with Somalia, especially in Mandera, Al Shabaab takes advantage of the curfew to hit police and strategic posts, particularly pylons for communications.
In this framework of waiting, which can no longer wait, the increasingly serious problem of Tourism is inserted, which is not as they think in much a whim of a few privileged foreigners, but a system which gives work with its induced activities throughout the Country to 2 million Kenyans and which, if it does not restart also with reduced marches, risks bringing a slice of the population to its knees.
After the last extension of the restrictions and in particular the impossibility to open restaurants in the evening and hotels with agreed guidelines, many activities that have made sacrifices until now waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel, begin to lay off and put employees in "layoffs" and the difference with other countries is that the Government has not studied social shock absorbers for them as well as the measures that will be taken to protect the companies themselves.
Of the three billion shillings allocated to the sector in the next budget, even one will be invested in marketing. We could have saved it, when hotels would need lifeblood as tax relief and precisely an aid to preserve the fixed workforce, which also means maintaining certain standards of quality, safety and professionalism. Not to mention the possibility of being able to offer special conditions to customers or even be reimbursed for part of the work involved in adapting the facilities to Covid-19 containment and prevention procedures.
This week there will be some important online meetings of the categories, with the Kenya Tourist Federation, always much listened to upstairs, on the shields. We hope that they will come out useful indications to restore optimism to the tourism sector and establish the blessed final guidelines to be able to tell those who want to come to Kenya (and there are requests, the confirmation comes from the associations, as well as reservations sites around the world and in our small from the portal of Italians in Kenya) when, how and under what economic conditions and services can do it.