This archive report was first published on 5 June 2020.
As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has expressed a desire to lift containment measures to reopen the economy, nearly two weeks ago.
On Madaraka Day, he promised to give directions on the next steps, which the public is eagerly awaiting today.
After nearly three months of partial lockdown, citizens are yearning for the relaxation of rules, having suffered greatly but borne the pain with fortitude for a good cause.
Coronavirus is a lethal virus, and statistics from Europe and America have demonstrated its deadliness.
For developing countries like Kenya, prevention is the best option, and containment is the strategy for achieving that.
When the President announced the regulations, the world was overwhelmed, and fear gripped everyone.
However, work stoppage, cancellation of public gatherings, and curtailment of travel have significantly cut infections, and arguably, the measures have borne fruit.
Kenya has minimised infections, and initial projects had forecast a doomsday scenario, but that did not come to pass.
Despite the progress, the world has since learnt many lessons, including the unprecedented pain inflicted on countries and individuals by lockdowns or partial closures.
Kenya's economic projections have been scaled down drastically to about 1.8 per cent in 2020, compared to 5.4 per cent in 2019.
Revamping the economy is pushing the government into heavy borrowing, but fear looms large that relaxation of the rules would trigger a spike in new infections.
Already, citizens have returned to their old interactions, oblivious of the inherent dangers, and without the rules, things may get out of hand.
For President Kenyatta, the challenge is to strike a balance between curbing infection and saving the economy.
Our view is that he should relax the rules to reopen the economy while pushing for compliance to health protocols to curb infections.
