T
he world went to a standstill. Flight mode could be felt all over. It’s like our movement was stopped. Felt like a blockage on 14 th 2020, with the panic so intense and could see time stop. Our televisions so tensed with the stations crowded with the air breathed. Just when we were starting to feel the happiness in the New Year it cropped in. The first victim on March incoming tallies.
Seven months down the line the aftermath is here. The business world met a great blow with the number of investors chipping in almost zero. The tire in listening to the same thing is what has worsened our livelihood. It has come to a point the news update is like noise on deaf years. The complaint from the tourism sector with the Kenya Airways having to lay down most the employees to cut down the cost. The country felt a great blow with the president of USA restricting is citizens from visiting Africa especially the eastern side. With the reduction in the number of tourists decreasing so does the foreign exchange hence needs to deduct the workload was crucial. The common ‘mwananchi’ suffers once again.
The biggest losses came with the closure of school. Started with the mention of a few days then it turned to weeks and then it grew into months. The young generation at stake with increase stay at home. The schools and institutions are rotten with overgrown grass and cobwebs all over. The funny part is hearing about schools turned to poultry farms and others became stores just for the chance to make something small. Pandemic as its name suggests was a pandemic on its own. Money the biggest problem a young generation had to go virtual. Seeing a parent pay for online lessons is one thing but knowing that all is jaunts a Childs play with the system at times flopping. How ‘can they expect a kid under the age of 5years to be able to understand what’s happening. Seeing a face is easy but getting to understand takes more than theory.
Enough talk about the closed schools did anyone notice that our students suffered a much worse fate. With the semester just beginning only to end in a jiffy. We have been waiting and sometimes would sit and listen to the cabinet secretary talk, to be able to catch a glimpse of any good news. The watch turned a norm. Student life is more into phone. A better part of the holiday as they termed it used for watching movies and listening to music.
Homes are no longer the place to be. The guardians heard complaining every corner of the rooms. No one understands the feeling of having no place to go or nothing to do. Idleness has grown to the villages. Sadly to say but the immoralities from the student left the village girls in distress. After a period of three months we have seen cases of 4000 teenage girls getting pregnant. A young kid gives birth to a kid, a total dilemma. Catastrophe is an underestimated statement. Curbing two global pandemics has been a whole task on its own. The headache grows with increased worry on how to handle the pregnancies.
Hardly had we finished the talk on increasing teenage pregnancy when the political temperature intensified. The politicians taking advantage of the youths. They understood the fact that the young ones have a lot of energy. They know very well the bankrupt state of the youths. They are back with promises and took no time to involve the students. They turned the youths into their pawns. The situation as seen two of our youths die painful. We need school. You only miss the sun when it starts to slow. The rhythm is turning into a disfigured one. There is no more fun in the actions arising from the pandemic.
As much as every blame would be placed on corona outbreak, the covid19 song as it’s turned into there were some good that came with it. A number of people got laid off their jobs due unavoidable reasons but it got them back to the drawing boards. An accountant now had to think of other ways to utilise the experience garnered. Something had to take people off the idea of employment being the only source of survival. Not mean it negatively but corona acted as an eye opener both to the employed and self employed, students were not left out. The sudden urge to make something small. I have taken time to observe the youths and some took the initiative to take part in small businesses, French fries being the common business in town. The realisation that their continuous dependence on the parents was leaving them in poverty with the support coming in small portions. The situation had to awaken their hidden capabilities. It’s a step ahead.
We had time to think of what we had posed aside. The things that we did not really make a priority got to us at a time we never expected. We have to understand to live with the situation and embrace the new normal. Once we decide to go on with our lives so with the livelihood get back. We need our education, enough with the old tale of going virtual. This is a mirage unless adequately prepared for. We want our economy stable again we need to get right back where rain started beating us.

corona is stationery but we are in motion.