That a virus is causing a global panic is not news anymore. The whole world is in agony over Covid-19, the latest of the viruses in the coronavirus family to inflict the world that broke out in China a few months ago. The others are acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).
Covid-19 has reportedly infected close to 80,000 people across the world and the number continues to grow. This has, rightly, caused fear everywhere as there is, reportedly, no known cure for the virus, although there is every indication that the symptoms associated with it can be managed and full recovery achieved. There has not been a confirmed case of a Kenyan, either at home or abroad, being infected.
Perhaps the most heart-rending story to emerge about this virus is the tale of a father whose three children are marooned in the epicentre of the epidemic. Franklin Asira narrated in the Saturday Nation the ordeal of his three children — two boys and a girl — who are students in China. The girl is confined in her student room in Wuhan City, where the disease was first diagnosed at the end of last year and is most prevalent.
They cannot move out either because of their passports being held by the State or the travel embargo imposed on parts of China. It is more than 40 days since a lockdown was declared in Wuhan in particular and limited travel in China in general.
It is difficult to comprehend the kind of apprehension these three children are separately undergoing in a foreign land. It is even harder to be their helpless parent thousands of kilometres away.
But even as the families of the Kenyans in China hope and pray for intervention to have their kin back, there is growing fear over safety at home. That is why there was a furore some time last week when an aeroplane from China landed at JKIA with more than 200 passengers on board and the immigration officials went about their duties without protective gear. To make matters worse, all the passengers were allowed to disembark and move out to their destinations after being asked to self-quarantine!
The ensuing outcry was justifiable. President Uhuru Kenyatta immediately condemned the apparent carelessness at the country’s main point of entry and warned that such a lacklustre approach to safety won’t be tolerated.
The President also formed a 21-member committee to identify and run emergency facilities for the virus — just in case. The National Emergency Response Committee, formed via an executive order, will be chaired by Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and will have CSs in charge of Defence, Transport, Foreign Affairs and ICT as members.
But even as we seek remedies home and away, a trend is emerging that could make the situation worse. There is a growing fear of the Chinese, and not just the disease, among Kenyans that borders on xenophobia. There was, for instance, drama last week when a Chinese man working at a road construction site on Waiyaki Way in Nairobi sneezed. It was reported that bystanders scampered for safety, some jumping over deep trenches.
Elsewhere in the city, a Chinese couple is reported to have walked into a restaurant and, as they made their way to an empty table, everybody, including cashiers and waiters, turned to look at them, horror written all over their faces. The couple, reading the mood, grinned and left.
Another incident was reported in Kakamega last month when the sight of a Chinese man prompted some residents to take to their heels, leaving him bewildered. In Makindu, Machakos, medics — who should know better — are said to have scampered for safety after several Chinese were brought into the facility.
Construction workers at a site in Tana River lost their jobs after Chinese engineers reportedly left for Nairobi under pressure from residents and leaders to be screened for coronavirus.
But the worst case is a worrying campaign on social media, attributed to an MP in the former Eastern Province, which incites locals to avoid Chinese and do other unsavoury things whenever they spot them.
Other than being defeatist and illogical, incitement to xenophobia in the face of a disease outbreak is plain stupid. China is a country of hundreds of millions and quite a number of them are stationed abroad. Their exposure to the virus is just as much as any other national’s and they should not be victimised just for being of that extraction.
Suppose our tendencies were retaliated against our brothers and sisters abroad?
In the face of coronavirus, let us seek ways of beating the disease, not the people we assume are spreading it.
