Thread by @Ramah_Nyang

Uhuru Kenyatta: "Fellow Kenyans, we tend to forget quickly."

Uhuru Kenyatta: "You can always revive an economy, but you cannot revive a lost life."

But, politicians [himself included] have largely ignored the same pandemic restrictions he put in place.

#Kenya's President rationalizing the economic cost of the policies he put in place in 2020. Those policies, he says, prevented an average of 2000 lives per day, and average of 1 million cases by end of 2020.

The economic cost, Uhuru Kenyatta says, was "acceptable" under the COVID-19 pandemic.

I can't recall the last time he framed arguments on what policy option is ideal, in terms of their opportunity costs. Certainly doesn't happen often in other key issues [debt, anyone?]

The choice facing us now, Uhuru Kenyatta says, is how much to open up, and how much to still keep pandemic restrictions given the new variants of SARS-CoV-2.

The data, he says, shows that when pandemic restrictions are lifted, positivity rates rise. When restrictions are tightened, he says, the positivity rate falls.

More recent data sets from March shows that the positivity rate in daily tests has remained over 10%.

Uhuru Kenyatta: All forms of political gathering are hereby prohibited for a period of 30 days.

Not the first time we've heard this measure though. Last time, this was not properly implemented. What's different now?

Uhuru Kenyatta: enforce the order banning political and social gatherings, regardless of the social, economic and political status of the persons who are holding them.

Uhuru Kenyatta: Ceremonies at funerals, cremations, weddings, capped at 100 persons. Places of worship limited to operate at a third of their available capacity.

Uhuru Kenyatta: Govt officials directed to strictly enforce border health security, especially at informal border crossing points.

🤔🤔 Not saying so outright, but isn't this aimed at #Tanzania?

@MOH_Kenya directed to strengthen genomic surveillance in order to keep tabs on what SARS-CoV-2 variants are in circulation.

Uhuru Kenyatta: Nationwide curfew extended for another 60-days.

Ok, so far, we're not seeing any drastically new policies being announced here. Curfew extension was expected. The curfew exemptions granted to some businesses

Uhuru Kenyatta turns to vaccination: local experts are convinced that the safety profile of the WHO-screened & sourced vaccines is bankable. The vaccines we got via #COVAX are the ones made by teams at Oxford University & AstraZeneca.

So....how are these "social gatherings" to be defined though? Are music concerts, for instance, banned? 🤔🤔

I'll be *very* surprised if there's any actual implementation of the ban on political gatherings between now and April 16. Especially with a referendum in the pipeline on the constitutional changes he [Uhuru Kenyatta] has publicly backed.

Uhuru Kenyatta now switches over to elaborate on the policy measures in Swahili. Starts by making the case why there is a need to limit the number of people at funerals, weddings. We're not saying you should not have weddings or funerals, he says.

Uhuru Kenyatta: "Whoever breaks the directive to not hold political rallies, including myself, will be dealt with according to the law."

Given the lack of implementation of this directive the first time round, he's making this statement from a point of negative credibility.