As we inch closer towards the end of the year, there is no gainsaying the fact that 2020 has been a most difficult year. Like any other year, 2020 started with a lot of promise.
It also signified the beginning of a new decade. Three months in, Covid-19 struck and all things went south. Schools were closed, a dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed, and movement restricted in Mombasa and Nairobi.
The economy took a massive hit as businesses wound up, leading to job losses. Unemployment rates increased from 5.2 percent in the first quarter to 10.4 percent in the second.
Amid all these, health workers downed their tools. To make it even worse, our leaders have chosen to prioritise the push for a referendum over the welfare of people smack in the middle of a pandemic.
Resilience of Kenyan people
Given the situation, many are wont to feel despondent. Many feel insecure about their jobs, while learners set to resume school next year are anxious about their future.
Many citizens continue to feel that the government has abdicated its duty towards them, has left us in the lurch and that it continues to watch as the millstone around our neck threatens to take us down with it.
Reading from newspapers and other media reports, 2021 has already been predicted to be grimmer with tax breaks coming to an end and Covid-19 cases predicted to rise exponentially as a result of the festive period. However, all hope is not lost.
I choose to bank hope on the resilience of the Kenyan people. Time and again, Kenyans have been to hell and bounced back even stronger.
From the dark days of the ‘80’s and ‘90’s to the nightmarish days that followed the 2007 General Election, Kenyans have showed their stoicism and resilience to bounce back even stronger from the toughest of situations.
Circumstances may be different, but it has happened before and it will happen again. Like a phoenix, Kenyans will rise from the ashes!
Lewis-Miller Kaphira, 19, a second year student of Economics and Statistics at Kenyatta University.
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