President Uhuru Kenyatta Terribly Failed In His Speech

President Uhuru Kenyatta addressed the nation on Monday, April 6, 2020, with Kenyans from all walks of life listening. There were concerns that the Son of Jomo was set to announce a lockdown. Thankfully, he did not.

For almost 30 minutes, in a speech punctuated with “fellow Kenyans”, President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke on, and by the time he was finished, Kenyans were busy looking for lawyers and analysts to explain what the speech was really about.

First, the speech was complicated and contained terms that were not in touch with the common man. The President’s speechwriter seems to have written the speech with the upper class in mind but not even the upper class could understand anything. That speechwriter should be reassigned.

As much as the containment order was good, giving Kenyans, especially residents of Nairobi to comply with an order set to restrict their movement in and out of the county was misplaced, thousands caught unaware and the majority are still stranded.

In the next 21 days that President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced strict measures from the government, he “forgot” mention what the government will be doing in rolling out mass testing for Kenyans. So far, the government has only concentrated on those in quarantine facilities.

Kenyans expected President Uhuru Kenyatta to talk about the issue of rent. Millions of Kenyans are now unable to pay their rent as tough economic times continue to bite. Instead, he left them at the mercy of landlords, begging them to be “considerate”. We all know that is not going to happen in a capitalist economy.

Compare the speech of President Uhuru Kenyatta with that of strongman Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Museveni was simple and straightforward. By the time he was done, Ugandans were like “Sebo, we shall comply.” The man is actually distributing food to Ugandans under lockdown to their houses.

Look at Rwanda. President Paul Kagame has announced free water, free electricity and free distribution of food for the next three months for every resident in Rwanda during this period.

Other African countries like Ghana opted to increase salaries for nurses and doctors by 50 percent to enable them to fight the pandemic. In Kenya, we are asking them to hold on, be brave and fight for the country. You cannot fight for a country that gives no damn about you.

As the virus spreads, our government should stop all the confusion, be human and talk like a human, for once.

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