Shame of Covid billions lying idle at Treasury

That not a coin of the Sh9.7 billion raised two years ago to fight Covid-19 has been utilised speaks to the shameful dereliction of duty by State officials. There can be no good explanation for the funds that could have helped to turn the tide of the pandemic sooner and saved thousands of lives and livelihoods lying idle at the Treasury all these years later.

What could Sh9.7 billion do? At the time when Kenyans were rushing from one hospital to another in search of empty intensive care unit (ICU) beds for their kin fighting for dear life, that money could have ensured that more public hospitals across the counties had adequate ICU beds. Instead, hundreds of families were turned away by overwhelmed hospitals.

Just a fraction of that money would also have seen to it that health workers at the battlefront had the necessary personal protective equipment as they take care of patients. But we know of cases in which doctors such as Dr Stephen Mogusu worked under the most horrible conditions — long hours and without a salary for several months — only to later contract the virus and die.

There is much more good that money would have done, but we will never know.

Right now we need answers on why the fund has not been put to work to achieve the objectives for which it was set up.

Such answers are especially urgently needed now that there is a resurgence of Covid-19, with the positivity rate rising to 12.9 percent as of last week. Every resource needs to be brought to bear to bring down the infections.

Kenya can ill afford to fumble this latest battle against the disease. Doing so means we risk having the gains made in the Covid-19 pandemic fight reversed. It means we could go back to the days when our healthcare system was overwhelmed and devastating lockdowns were the best option to control the pandemic.

With the economy struggling with the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, if Covid-19 got out of hand, it would be a double tragedy that would be much harder to recover from.

So, the government needs to put that money to good use. That means intensifying the vaccination campaign and ensuring that our hospitals are well-equipped and staffed.