A year to forget but 2020 has rich lessons

COVID-19 was the only defining factor for 2020. FILE PHOTO | NMG

By COLLINS ODOTE
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Summary

• COVID-19 was the only defining factor for 2020.
• It led to loss of lives, near collapse of businesses and economies and a fundamental change in the manner society conducts some of its activities.
• As the new year starts, I have reflected about how life has changed and what these changes means going forward.

While growing up I was always told that experience is the best teacher and the Swahili language similarly pointed out that long life has leads to many lessons. The year that has just ended, 2020 is a true confirmation of the accuracy of those sentiments. At a time like now, we were all looking forward to the start of the next decade, a decade that had an urgent task to try and catch up with the global promise of ending poverty for all by the time the Sustainable Development Goals target period were scheduled to come to an end in 2030. The reality was to turn out so different, thanks to coronavirus epidemic.

COVID-19 was the only defining factor for 2020. It led to loss of lives, near collapse of businesses and economies and a fundamental change in the manner society conducts some of its activities. As the new year starts, I have reflected about how life has changed and what these changes means going forward.

When the virus first hit the world, it was in China and then moved to the West. There was huge concern whether African countries would be able to cope with its effects. With fragile economies, weak heath care systems and governance challenges, everybody feared for the first. However, as the year ends the continent has largely weathered to storm. Taking Kenya as an example, despite the lock down for several months, the economy did not collapse. Our health care system remained standing at the end of the year and while lives were lost, it was not in astronomical proportions as had been initially projected. The big lesson is the need for the continent to have hope in its ability to deal with challenges and prosper.

My second take-away is the role of citizenship. Kenya’s constitution recognizes that sovereign power vests with the citizens. In many instances though human behavior does not fully appreciate and act in accordance with this basic tenet of democracy. Instead, too much power is ceded to politicians in the false belief that they hold the key to all of society’s problems. However, as the year 2020 demonstrated they are often an exacerbator of crisis. The real heroes for 2020 in the fight against COVID were citizens. Ordinary citizens serving as health care workers, security officials, businesspeople and members of communities helped address the shortcomings of Government and the political class and thus reduced the negative impact of the virus on the people. People who kept their neighbors alive and afloat by sending them frequent supplies, serving as their brothers’ keeper as the scripture commands were utterly amazing Kenyan spirit.

My other takeaway is that governance is quintessential for development. Many years ago, I remember a debate that arose worldwide about a developmental state, whose central argument that strong state intervention is necessary in terms of economic policies for prosperity in society. In the process though questions were raised whether this justified sacrificing some democratic freedoms or not. The year has demonstrated that good governance is a foundational component of development. Early attempts by security forces in the country to stifle on citizens rights in the guise of enforcing curfew did not work. Instead with good policing and consultative processes, more positive results were realized.

In addition, it is clear that Kenya is a country waiting to exhale. The innovativeness of its citizenry evidence by the quick way the private sector was able to produce many of the required equipment to respond to the virus, especially personal protective equipment at a time when there was scarcity in the global market. The greatest hindrance remains the quality of its leadership. In addition is the endemic corruption. Past efforts to fight this vice has almost stalled. It is as if Kenyans have resigned themselves to the fact that it is impossible to have a corrupt-free society. In al sector that one looks, you get shocked at how deep-rooted this negative culture is. As opposed to all the high-sounding rhetoric and plans, all that the country needs to do is to develop an honest solution to this problem and our journey to being a more prosperous country will be surely on course.

Lastly is technology holds huge promise for the future. COVID-19 forced the country to adopt the use of technology in all sectors in an unprecedented scale. Past obstacles including procurement and the need to renew licenses which had existed vanished demonstrating that they were more of excuses rather than realities.

As we start a new year and with the hope that the vaccines will soon be with us in Kenya to enable us to get back to normal lives, it is incumbent on al of us not to forget the lessons from 2020. While the year 2020 is one many will be happy to quickly forget, its lessons must be caried forward into the future.