In Kenya the moment of truth has arrived, that of the so-called "phase 2".
The reopening week begins today for the country and it could be the fundamental moment to understand if it is possible to fight the battle against the pandemic without necessarily relying on binding restrictions and without bringing the economic and social system to its knees even more.
A large part of the measures announced by President Kenyatta last Monday, 6 July, in fact, will take shape from today until Wednesday.
Today reopens the Nairobi-Mombasa fast railroad, which, with the two counties open, is one of the most used means of transport by travelers, weekly commuters and tourists to move not only from the two most important Kenyan cities or the capital to the coast, but also for those who live or trade in the other places included in the stretch that have a railway station, especially the town of Voi that is located more or less halfway.
Tomorrow will also reopen the places of worship with specific rules to follow, the most important of which is the limitation of the number of worshippers to no more than one hundred people and in any case no more than 50 percent of possible occupants.
The Ministry of Health remains convinced that the return of activities involving movement, crowding and interaction will accelerate the increase towards the peak of infection numbers, especially if health and safety protocols are not strictly observed.
Operators of public transport vehicles, buses and matatu will also be allowed to travel by road. But only after they have undergone the necessary checks and agreed to comply with the new Covid-19 rules, on pain of heavy fines and withdrawal of licences.
Already this weekend many residents of Nairobi and Mombasa, the two nerve centres of the spread of Coronavirus in the country, have begun the exodus to their villages of origin, especially in rural areas where it is time to harvest cereals.
Despite the fact that those responsible for the category have ensured that those who have started carrying passengers are already in order and are complying with the protocols, there are those who have already found several violations, especially on the number of passengers.
The Government has expressed itself in all ways and with several statements to the media to ask the population to respect the rules and be the first controllers of the situation, so that we do not have to go back on decisions to reopen everything and penalize the world of work again and limit people's freedom.
As has been pointed out in a widely circulated leaflet, social distance and the use of the mask are the first essential measures to which everyone should submit themselves and they are certainly not taboos so difficult or expensive to apply. Unfortunately, however, many citizens do not consider these practices so important and see them only as obligations to be shown only in the presence of the police, for fear of fines or requests for bribes.
From Wednesday, aircraft and airports will resume flying, albeit with strict protocols, and will welcome passengers back on domestic routes. In this way the Government also hopes to reactivate tourism even if many doubts remain, especially for the lack of optimism shown by the hoteliers about the reopening of their facilities, which are subject to expensive but also difficult to comply with due to lack of assistance from the institutions. First of all, the availability of buffers and the uncertainty about the timing of the analysis results.
The reopening of the churches is of great concern to the Ministry of Health because of the established habit of the Kenyans to gather, sing and dance, sharing hours and hours between function and speeches to the communities. The rule of a hundred people will require priests and pastors to say Mass several times on Sundays and impose on the faithful not to exchange signs of peace and respect distances.

Picture: UNHCR/Samuel Otieno