Mutahi Kagwe, Cabinet Secretary in charge of Health
Kenya lost the war on Covid-19 the moment the scandal about stealing of Jack Ma's donation came to the fore.
After the KEMSA #Covid19Millionaires were busted, everything was questioned. The thieves included top govt officials even at the Health Ministry (MoH)
It didn't help that in the formative years of the pandemic, deregistered medical personnel and conspiracy theorists and fact-checkers had poked holes on the inconsistencies of the messages about the disease even as explained by the World Health Organization (WHO) itself.
It became open knowledge that some explanations didn't add up and that questions were now being silenced by the Big Tech instead of the WHO answering them.
For example, the definition of herd immunity as known since time immemorial when it was first defined was changed by WHO into what appeared as pushing for the agenda of the moment, i.e. wearing masks.
Then this confusion found a land off the coast of East Africa known as Kenya. An amazing land of 10 trillionaires and 40 million paupers; and it became worse.
Due to high corruption cases, it was only a matter of time before someone was busted selling Covid-19-free certificates.
The failure by the govts to be consistent in its messaging about the virus. The failure by the govt to utilize the donations in personal protective equipment (PPEs) and to roll out the best plans to cover and protect the masses was the downfall.
People even questioned the numbers as they didn't see tests conducted in their neighbourhoods even during the so-called mass testing, and they knew too well that their neighbours couldn't afford the Sh17,000 fee for tests but Mutahi Kagwe in his daily briefings mentioned their estates as those affected by Covid-19.
The corruption and lack of trust in the govt led to a more sinister situation. Clinics thought that if a clinic near State House (Lady Northley) would engage in Issuing fake certificates, what about them?
Medical personnel who owned private clinics and hospitals thought that if govt officials can steal and misdirect the PPEs and testing kits to private hospitals and earn billion of shillings, what about them?
Private hospitals and clinics charged exorbitantly for Covid-19 tests locking a lot of Kenyans from assessing what should've been an essential service.
And so the game began, and rogue hospitals like Coptic are just fulfilling the Kenyan corruption promise, that is 'get rich by all means necessary including stealing from the vulnerable and selling ones mother for a mess of pottage'. En wach malich! In the previous article, we read how Coptic issues fake Covid-19-free certificates at between Sh500 and Sh1,000 for those who seek to travel outside.
This is how corruption makes everything fail. Corruption threatens national security but it seems Uhuru Kenyatta doesn't see it that way as long as his family is richest in Kenya.
In the land of Mutahi Kagwe, the fight against Covid-19 is a lost cause and that's why Kenyans still wonder why there's that strange animal known as curfew which restricts them from travelling at night by bus.
It restricts them from travelling at night by bus but doesn't do the same for rail and air passengers. Buses and PSVs have better social distancing mechanisms that those two (rail and air).
Honesty is not a virtue in Kenya and hospital like Coptic and Lady Northley shouldn't be encouraged to continue duping the public.
The right thing must be done.
https://nyakundireport.com/kenyas-digital-verification-of-covid-19-certification-system-hacked/