Were the African indigenous resources rendered impotent by the pandemic? A Review of COVID-19 Impact in Kenya, March 2020 to March 2022

Abstract

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, became a reality in Kenya on 13 March 2020 when the first confirmed case was publicly announced. The disease spread across the country and had posted over 300, 000 confirmed cases and over 5, 000 deaths by March 2022. With some risk factors, for COVID-19, remaining: close contacts, coughing, sneezing on by an infected person, poor air flow, and crowded places with infected people, among others, the pandemic remained a major scare, as Kenya geared towards August 2022 general elections which were hotly contested, especially at the presidential levels. There were fears that the 2022 electoral contests would reverse the gains that had been made in the previous two years (2020, 2021), as the government had put up containment measures, that previously banned crowded political rallies. Church gatherings, and other social activities were effectively controlled. Nevertheless, the coming of COVID-19 in March 2020 brought about far-reaching effects that will continue to inform the Kenyan nation for an unforeseeable future. Were the indigenous resources rendered irrelevant by COVID-19? Did the failure to exorcise the demons of COVID- 19 make the religious institutions irrelevant? (Mk. 5:4-20, Lk. 4:33-36). This article seeks to explore how these impacts on the Kenyan society played out, and how communal-inclusive approaches were utilized to usher in an African face in the onslaught against the pandemic. Were there indigenous resources that could inform these discourses?