By Eric Wamanji
The coronavirus in Kenya charges as if it’s on steroids. We long crossed the 20, 000 mark; the monster appears unrelenting. It’s also leaving a trail of ruin- misery, fright and death.
Yet, defiance of basic Ministry of Health guidelines seems normative. The most abused is the mask. Nowadays, people negligently mingle in groups without, or with incorrectly worn masks. Others wash hands as if it’s a bother. And before the latest ban on booze, folks flocked pubs, swigged and made raucous merry.
These are illogical habits, by and large, though not perplexing.
But it was not designed to be this way. By the time Kenya was declaring its first case of coronavirus on March 13, the public was privy to the lockdown in Wuhan, scramble for toilet paper in the US and streams of coffins in Spain. Thus, the public was psychologically prepped for tough days.
In fact, on that Friday evening, after the revelation, I chanced by the Junction Mall on Ngong Road. Lo and behold, the place was bustling. Tens of trolleys overflowing with trays of eggs, cereals, and yes, toilet paper, rolled off from the supermarket. The following day, the CBD, normally humming, was hushed.
Public goodwill
And when the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Mr Mutahi Kagwe aka Mr. “You can gerrit. I can gerrit,” took the microphone, the country drooled. He quickly connected and won hearts and minds for his calmness, coherence and eloquence. Social media, spellbound by nostalgia, drew parallels with Mr Mwai Kibaki – the good old grandmaster of economics. In essence, the public goodwill was pulsating.
Not anymore. Just what happened? How was the public consent towards containing Covid-19 lost?
It was something to do with tea. It all began when it was revealed that wonks at Afya House entrusted to contain Covid_19 sipped tea worth Sh. 4 million in a span of a few weeks. That exposé set tongues wagging in every nook and cranny. The lore of tea worth millions was as bemusing as bastardizing.
I think, from that juncture, the public considered the Covid_19 narrative another hoax. They must have sublimely contextualized the pandemic in the mix of other accounts of notorious embezzlement common in the public space.
Whilst Sh 4 million may not be a lot to the state, to mwananchi, that’s a lot of a hell of money to be poured on tea. See, tea at the Kibanda is Sh. 20. Millions on tea! You must be kidding, right? Yet, this is the public that ought to sacrifice for bigger good? No way!
Beyond tea, it was not long before politicians started to flout the guidelines. For instance, the COTU chief honcho, Francis Atwoli, would summon politicians to his home, even when there was a ban on public gatherings. Cabinet Secretaries traversed the country to inspect projects, in the process causing gatherings. Same leaders would address the media without masks. The imitative public watched and noted.
Then came the death of a Siaya man who was disrespectfully interred at ungodly hours. The viral video shocked the hell out of humanity. It was a PR disaster. Yet, others like the KQ captain, received red carpet send-off. These discrepancies registered in the minds of the public who started to yarn an “us” versus “them” plot.
Hard sell
The moment there’s a whiff of societal divide, calls for collectivity become a hard sell. It explains the elusiveness of the mental construct of “we’re in this together.”
These brief accounts and many others take us back to the Covid_19 strategy. It was, it appears, premised on the principle that people are rational, and that they will be scared of getting sick and death. It also dwelt so much on medical dynamics and the rule of law. Fair enough. But the strategy did not hit the sweet spot.
Panacea for pandemics begins with behavioral and psychological subtleties. A robust communication strategy would have reckoned that public persuasion is an enterprise in emotions. Remember, people who have nothing to lose hardly fear death. Second, a strategist would guide against double standards; remember the brain detests inconsistencies. Third, condescending tone from leaders only constructed rebellion. Indeed, we needed persuasion not police.