Indeed, for a country like Kenya (and for most on the African continent), the former is not possible without the latter.įurthermore, due to history and geography Kenya remains a strategically vital country in East Africa. The article asks several fundamental questions about the pandemic in Kenya, including: What was the impact of COVID-19, immediately in 2020 but also over the course of 2020-2021? How effective was the Kenyan government’s response? To what extent was Kenya able to use regional and global networks to respond to the pandemic? How does Kenya plan to change its public policies in the future to deal with pandemics? In other words, how did the pandemic affect Kenya’s systems of governance and foreign affairs? As the article will illuminate, governmental responses to the pandemic affected healthcare services as well as domestic security services (e.g., police and law enforcement). This article aims to fill in the gaps, adding much needed perspective to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, its impacts and effects on the political, security, and strategy dimensions of the country. If we exercise civic responsibility and act as our ‘brother’s keeper,’ we will have won half the battle against this pandemic.” 1 As with most, if not all, political speeches, Kenyatta’s words and sentences were filled with both truths as well as partial truths. In a measured address to the Kenyan people, he ended on a realistic note: “I must remind you that Government will do its part to protect Kenyans but the first line of defence against an invisible enemy like Covid is the people. He discussed both the political and the economic challenges that Kenya experienced and might continue to face in the future. He recounted the loss of 1,879 Kenyans due to COVID-19 and referred to the struggle with the pandemic as a “fog of war,” an enemy unseen and undefined.

On 12 March 2021-the one-year anniversary of the first case of COVID-19 in Kenya-its President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke to the Kenyan people about the past year’s events, discussing the highs, the lows, and everything in between.

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