They include invocation of emergency public health procedures; mass shutdown of schools; banning of public group meetings, including religious gatherings; and suspension of flights from many countries. The Constitution defines an emergency situation in terms of threats to the State by war, invasion, general insurrection, internal conflicts, any exceptional circumstances, disorder and “natural disasters or other public emergency”. President Kenyatta has been tested in crises before. The government should take urgent wartime actions to plug hard currency haemorrhage through imports of goods that can be easily produced locally and thus jump-start job creation to cushion the economy from forthcoming shocks. On the offensive side, saving unnecessary haemorrhage of scarce hard currency and cutting off the commercial cartels from exemptions should be rolled out as aggressively.

Source: Daily Nation March 22, 2020 21:22 UTC