It’s bye to a painful year, but what are we welcoming?
So for 2021, I advise that we tap into the innovativeness that Covid-19 has forced on us.
What you need to know:
- The misery that is Covid-19 will extend in defiance of the new vaccines that have been prepared in record time.
- Everyone that cares to know knows that the Kenya Revenue Authority has not been meeting its targets for several years now.
Many of us can’t wait to shut the door on 2020, because Covid-19 upended our lives so dramatically and so miserably that we just want the end of the nightmare. That end is just a few days away but I do not see the end of the nightmare.
The misery that is Covid-19 will extend in defiance of the new vaccines that have been prepared in record time.
This part of the world is not receiving the vaccines that are already being administered to people in the UK and the US. And when they do get here, the probability is very high that not all those who need it – which should be everyone, will get them.
Even if the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Jack Ma Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, make them available, there is no guarantee that the vaccines will reach everyone! We saw what happened to the Covid-19 protective materials donated by Jack Ma!
But we are thinking too far ahead into 2021. We have more immediate problems like the strike by medical workers in public health institutions.
The fact that the threat was allowed to bloom into reality should warn us that little will change. Those in charge – right from the top – are clueless, incompetent, and/or unwilling to take responsibility for the real urgent problems confronting Kenyans.
Protect doctors
They are unwilling to protect medical workers and doctors who are at the frontline fighting the disease. And although it is correct for the Cabinet secretary of Health to claim that doctors do not strike when there is a disaster, in other countries they are fully armed to fight the war, not left defenceless. The Hippocratic Oath places a huge burden of service on doctors, but it does not ask them to become martyrs.
It is not only the agony and pain of preventable deaths. Parliament this past week allowed Treasury their wish to re-impose taxes and remove reliefs that the government had put in place to cushion wananchi against Covid-19’s body blows.
VAT is back to 16 per cent from January 1, as will be full Paye deductions, full corporation tax and a new one imposed on SMEs calculated on the basis of the turnover, not net income.
The argument that the government has no choice but to reinstate these taxes is simplistic and a refusal to face facts. There simply isn’t enough people in employment and companies making profits to provide government with enough cash to make up for the deficit in government revenues.
Everyone that cares to know knows that the Kenya Revenue Authority has not been meeting its targets for several years now. Covid-19 simply cracked a rotting maggot.
Logistical challenges
The prospect of schools reopening on January 4 is another jolt whose ripples will last quite a while. The health, economic and logistical challenges will vex parents, teachers and administrators for many months, making New Year’s Day just the start of a fresh headache triggered by the pandemic. Ironically, one does not get any sense of urgency from the government, which really should be putting its best foot forward to demonstrate leadership. US President Donald Trump lost his presidency partly because of the inept way in which his government responded to the pandemic. He wasted the crisis that otherwise could have given him a bounce if had handled it differently. Our leaders have not done any better.
And nothing in their poor judgement more starkly manifests this than the push for a referendum. It is a costly and dangerous activity whose timing and justification is shockingly callous. To divert scarce resources to fund a super spreader activity is shocking. But it is happening and will, even more painfully, be followed by a General Election is 2022.
So for 2021, I advise that we tap into the innovativeness that Covid-19 has forced on us. Be very frugal, be reasonably selfish because this is a time of real scarcity. Make staying at home a saving mechanism. Clean hands will reduce your medical expenses apart from keeping you alive.
Avoiding crowds will justify your skipping parties and funerals and perhaps save you some cash. It is a desperate time and I doubt it will be an inspiring new year. But hey, you are alive and so try to survive in this hell than rush into the next one.
[email protected], @tmshindi
