The dusk-to-dawn curfew to contain the coronavirus was not rational, evidence-based and is insensitive to the needs of daily wage earners, activists have said.
Constitutional expert Yash Pal Ghai, lawyer Makau Mutua and several other human rights activists have faulted President Uhuru Kenyatta for the curfew that began on March 27.
In a memorandum to the Senate Committee on Covid-19 Situation, they said the government has opted to coerce the public into complying, instead of persuading them to do so.
This, they said, undermines the purpose of the curfew and causes "tragic consequences" that only undermine the legitimacy of the government.
The group says the poorest families have no capacity to stock large amounts of food or water and should have been considered.
The petition to the committee is also signed by human rights defenders Maina Kiai, Geroge Kegoro, John Githongo, Father Gabriel Dolan and Roselyne Akombe, among others.
“A curfew or lockdown needs to take into account ... the practical logistics of people who live in densely populated urban neighbourhoods, whose circumstances already negate social distancing and who need special logistics to live,” they said.
They said that the curfew should have considered the low-income economy and its logistics in order to be in better focus.
“Food supply and distribution operate through this low-income economy and stakeholders must be identified, planned for and consulted,” they said.
They gave an example of Wuhan, China — the initial epicentre of the virus — where shorter food chains and localised systems were put in place to stop a food crisis.
“A more evidence-based decision would have been to lock down Nairobi completely, preventing people from leaving or coming into the city, and to carry out similar measures in Mombasa and its outskirts, before making further assessments,” the activists observed.
A localised lockdown, they said, would be easier to manage and would be more targeted.
While the Kenyan government has provided periodic media briefings, the activists argue, there is still a significant information gap.
“It has not outlined a coherent picture of how it perceives the threat of coronavirus or how its responses meet the threat. As a result, there is so much that the public should know but does not,” they said.
Further, to the decision-making power on responses to the coronavirus, the lobbyists claim is concentrated among a small circle of individuals who are all based in Nairobi, and excludes the voices of the rest of the country.
“While the government says it is talking to medical professionals, it needs to further diversify and pluralise decision making to increase credibility and chances of buy-in,” they say.
(edited by o. owino)