Nairobi is the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya with over 60 per cent of confirmed cases being from the city. Efforts to manage the pandemic has to date involved emergency directives from the national Covid 19 emergency response committee and county governments.
As part of these efforts, the Nairobi metropolitan area and other four counties have been subjected to two rounds of 21-day partial lockdowns aimed at containing the spread of the disease.
The lockdowns, imposed since last month, mainly involve a dusk-to-dawn curfew and restricted movement in most affected counties.
During the first phase, Nairobi witnessed a reduction in the average daily infection rates to 5-10 cases. However, the second round has been characterised by increasing disobedience of the curfew.
Part of the problem has been that partial lockdown allows some opportunity for the disease to spread, especially during the day when people are allowed to interact with others.
Total lockdown with active medical and humanitarian action could provide a turning point in the management of the pandemic. It is, however, worth noting that this can be only be beneficial with these three aspects: active humanitarian support, active medical support and lesson learning for next planning stages.
First, over 70 per cent of the city’s population depend on daily wages from casual work, home-based work and small-scale businesses.
Even in normal circumstances, they lack quality housing and sanitation services, proper nutrition and medical care and are exposed to day-to-day hazards such as floods and fire. They also don’t have the luxury of bank savings or a resort to credit cards.
Total lockdown would mean cutting off their livelihoods.
Humanitarian support through relief food, medical services and regular stipends for basic expenditures would be necessary to cushion targeted residents, such as the urban poor.
But humanitarian support is not only material but psychological. Lockdown is likely to generate psychological distress as already witnessed.
Secondly, the national and county governments must work together to scale up medical action, including mass testing, isolation and treatment. Failure to actively manage the pandemic then is a huge loss to the fight against Covid-19 because total lockdown is a huge sacrifice — involving loss of livelihoods, especially for the poor and, indeed, revenue losses to the Nairobi’s economy.
Intense medical action, including large-scale mass testing, isolation and treatment will be necessary. That could yield progressive results that might renew the hopes of residents — that their sacrifice is yielding fruit. Missing the chance may only result in an appetite for prolonged or extended painful lockdown.
Thirdly, it will be critical to document the lessons and experiences and preferences of residents that can be useful in managing the post-lockdown period.
Rapid assessments and monitoring of experiences and preferences can help to generate lessons for informed post-lockdown actions and for informing long-term planning for future pandemics.
Ms Mwenda, chief officer for disaster management and coordination in the Nairobi County government, is a criminology and security management specialist; [email protected]
