Change anti-Covid-19 rules that don’t work

Experience is the best teacher, so goes an old saying. There are many hidden details in the movement restrictions orders that are causing suffering than the more elaborate macro-level economic hardships the country faces and which the government has consistently highlighted.

As fate would have it, my mother passed on and we laid her to rest last Friday.

With all the grief that comes with such an event, moreover, in the context of observing the strict government protocols on Covid-19, I learnt a few lessons that the government could consider because we shouldn’t fool ourselves by following rules that don’t add value in practice.

I have supported government restrictions right from the beginning, but I am starting to doubt the viability of its strategy to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

First, don’t disperse people who want to mourn a loved one. Simply ensure they observe social distancing and direct that funerals be conducted in large open spaces.

In the middle of pain of losing my mom, I realised how insensitive it is to have a national policy that blocks relatives and friends from mourning one of their own.

People connect differently, for they have family relationships that are particular and unique. Let people mourn because it is great healing for them.

Second, for the remainder of the extended period of movement restrictions, allow people to visit their dying relatives.

I now understand what it takes to care for a loved one who is at the end of life as we know it here on earth. Nieces, nephews, cousins and aunties are attached to their family tree.

Additionally, someone else may have grown up in a family and perhaps was adopted there.

The names won’t be the same if that is the criteria to identify who relates to who.

Limiting people to reach out to their sick and ailing ones, particularly those at home, is a horrendous policy. Please revise it with a human heart.

Third, there comes a time in life when not money, not status or technology can help you. During difficult moments, the heart longs for God’s presence for consolation. Trying to regulate the activities of religious worship for a long period is dangerous spiritual warfare.

If the government would have had a 14-day total shutdown to break the spread of coronavirus, we would have returned to some form of normalcy two months ago.

Perhaps it was optimistic we will flatten the curve much earlier, and we all obeyed. But, extending closure of religious activities at this point is extremely counterproductive.

There are reasons for and against re-opening the country, hence choosing between a right and a right as President Uhuru Kenyatta put it, but, experience at the grassroots tells a different story.  

Let us face it. Kenya has millions of people who find places of worship the only space that gives them hope.

Parents whose children have no jobs, including those losing jobs, people mourning their loved ones, people nursing their sick ones and so forth, are struggling to find an alternative prayer space. Please give it to them.

Again, for a short time, closing places of worship was the right thing to do. But, as the pandemic lingers, pretending to police social behaviour will endanger lives of many people.

The reason is practical, not necessarily logical. When people begin to think they are facing a dead end, they will break all rules.

Religious services

Ask every worship place to take care of its flock, how best they know. The business of government wanting to play Big Brother to the religious practices is not helpful.

Experience is showing that many worshippers view the government control of religious services negatively, and not as a preventive measure. And, they are right because, except for middle and upper level institutions, ordinary life in other spheres of life continues normally.

Lastly, in the past one week, I have learnt that most of us wear masks to conform.

Yes, we know all that medical explanation as to why we should wear them, but some people cannot afford to replace. They end up walking around with dirty reused masks. 

Just like medical doctors help us change drugs that do not positively respond to our bodies, let us not force Covid-19 preventive measures upon ourselves when some do not work. 

Please review some Covid-19 rules that don’t make sense in practice.

 

Dr Mokua lectures on media and communications studies