At a press conference yesterday, Thursday 1 April, following a demonstration in downtown Nairobi by civil society activists and workers laid off from public places, when asked if he would reopen Kenya's five lockdown counties immediately after Easter, President Uhuru Kenyatta said that in fact, if he had followed the advice of the majority of his staff and the strategies prepared by the Covid-19 Emergency Task Force, he would have had to close the whole country, but he decided to limit the measure to Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Nakuru and Kiambu.
to limit the measure to Nairobi, Kajiado, Machakos, Nakuru and Kiambu.
"My advisors indicated that if we want to mitigate this virus, the only measure we can take is lockdown," Kenyatta said. "In fact, if we had proceeded according to their dictates, we would have had to shut down the entire country. But I told them that we have an economy to protect that guarantees livelihoods, and that is why only the counties we closed were chosen as the most infected and we opted for a partial lockdown.
Now the next step, according to the President, is to flatten the curve of the third wave. Only when the percentage of positives per swab returns to around 5 percent and maintains this level for a few days in a row, can we consider reopening Nairobi and the adjoining counties.
All I can say to my countrymen is that this disease is with us and we cannot pretend otherwise," Kenyatta reiterated, "nor can we ignore the advice we are getting from the World Health Organization, the CBC and our experts.
The Head of State urged Kenyans to follow the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, including hand washing, hand use and practising social distance, so that infection rates can return to lower levels.
Meanwhile, the protest against the restrictions continues, with business associations denouncing the lack of social shock absorbers and business managers raising the alarm about the possible non-reopening of shops and public places. One of the main causes is the inability to pay rent.
Yesterday, meanwhile, the percentage rose by three points over the previous day to over 18.
There were just under a thousand new cases and 14 deaths. The capital's intensive care units are still crowded, with very few beds still free.