Mohammed Hersi . A hotelier passionate about Tourism & Governance in Africa

Dear Kenyans

While we focus on Tanzania and others as a country we need to improve our own behavior here. 17 fatalities on Thursday 28 yesterday and the latter is the highest ever since Covid came calling.

Then 17% positivity rate Thursday 17.5% Friday , this is serious even if the sample size is still small – its official the world is going through a serious 3rd wave and many Kenyans are back to business as usual –

No face masks in public spaces,

No physical distancing,

Mosques in Mombasa and entire coast is back to normal business save for three mosques Al Farouq , Taib and AlRahman in Nyali . All the rest are shoulder to shoulder.

Public transport is not following regulations/guidelines etc.

A good friend in Nbi sent me this ,” The youth are out of control attending weekly raves & other crowded parties, bars are full on Fridays & Saturdays which is great for business but a ‘haven’ for the virus especially when most patrons if not all are entering & walking around with no face masks, no physical distancing. They are the ones who risk getting infected & will go home to their parents who will then visit their grand parents who are most vulnerable ” well this time round age is nothing even young youth are dying so dont deceive yourself.

I asked a doctor who is a good friend to give us a general picture about the strain and this is what he wrote in our common chat group .

” It maybe a different strain. The symptoms patients are presenting with now is body chills and joints aches with no coughing or running nose or sneezing. In second wave the presenting symptoms were coughing, running nose, sore throat and coughing. In second wave the highest number in icu were in 60s now we are talking of 123 meaning double number of patients becoming critical. When you start seeing jump of deaths from 17 to 28 it means our icu facities are full to capacity and that any patients who becomes critical now will not get icu bed meaning that patient will die within hours. In brief the health systems are getting over run”.

This is certainly not a good read hence we must get out of denial and act accordingly.

GoK doesn’t need to impose more restrictions, we need to adhere to the ones that have been in place for a while & they must enforce without fear or favor where they are not being followed. Supermarkets are allowing shoppers to roam inside without masks , silly shoppers walk in with masks and moment they are in they remove them. At the till again silly shopper will come breathing on your neck had to chase some away . Use your eyes and stand at that clear point.

Things ain’t good but we can fly out of this new storm, weve done it before.

As always I choose to remain an optimist.

🙏🏾

Mohammed Hersi
Chairman
Kenya Tourism Federation