The War On Social Media Amid COVID-19 And Why CS Mutahi Kagwe Is Certain To Lose -By Ohaga Ohaga

“If you are doubting the information, we are giving you on the state of Coronavirus in the country, you can go to Mbagathi Hospital and confirm”. Those were the words of Mutahi Kagwe- Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary of Health on March 19, 2020 as he unleashed a warning shot to Kenyans vending unverified information in social media. “We will proceed to arrest several [them] you to prove our point’’ Kagwe lamented as he warned that persons in the social media were causing concern and panic among citizens.

In what appears to be a regular thing, Kagwe was at it again on April 2. Firing another warming shot – more like a threat this time to social media users after Kenyans disparaged the recovery story of Brenda Cherotich and Brian Orinda – the two patients who had recovered from COVID-19. As I followed the proceedings of his presser, I watched the CS with utmost sadness. The former Nyeri Senator and one-time MP of Mukurwe-ini was getting tired. A clear indication that the COVID-19 fight was getting to him. 

It was easy to understand Kagwe’s alter ego. See, Kagwe had briefed President Uhuru Kenyatta that Kenya’s Patient ‘Zero’ and another had fully recovered from the dreaded yet mysterious COVID-19 disease. In his very busy schedule, President Uhuru created time and appeared in a video call congratulating the two Kenyans. ‘You are special because immediately you arrived and felt unwell, without being coerced or forced or pushed by your parents, you took it upon yourself to go to a hospital…I believe this is a moment of pride,” remarked the President. Later, in a well-choreographed photo session, Kagwe and the two Kenyans were paraded before the press.

Later the same night, Brenda appeared in two TV interviews to talk about her recovery. It’s during these two interviews that hawk-eyed Kenyans observed the inconsistencies in her story and like they say, the rest is history. 

I differed with those who claimed that the move was wrong. That Kagwe ought to have paraded the medics who were instrumental in the patients’ recovery instead of Brenda and Brian. Ordinarily, when Eliud Kipchoge wins a marathon in London or New York; his coach, wife, and children are never paraded before the mass; it’s him who is celebrated as the victor/hero – because it’s him who has won the race not the latter. As much as I agreed that medics did a good job, their time to shine was yet to come. 

Parading the two for me was in good taste. In times of adversity like the one we’re in now, we need champions, we need heroes, we need people who have gone through the same and triumphed. This is something that health communication experts advise all the time.

Moreover, parading patients who have recovered from COVID-19 has been done in other countries like the USA among others. It’s not anything unique to Kenya. Given the above, I must say that Brenda’s story didn’t wash. Kagwe might have believed it; sadly, for me, it wasn’t believable.

This right here is where the problem arose. It’s this unbelievability that Kenyans took issues with and considered it as a PR Stunt. For instance, Brenda couldn’t even get her age right. In one interview, it was 26. Another it was 27. She also declined knowing Brian yet captioned-photos available online shows they were best of friends. 

In my humble opinion, Kagwe didn’t need to take issues with Kenyans ridiculing the story, rather he should have taken it as a lesson. For him to come out gun-blazing with admonitions bordering on threats to social media users wasn’t called for. Defending the story was mistake number two.

Having been a Minister for Information and Communication, I assume that Kagwe fully understands that freedom of expression as is freedom of the media are not privileges that the State dish to Kenyans but are rights entitled to every Kenyan of sane mind.

That said, I must note nonetheless, that social media users went way over-board in criticizing Brenda’s story. Attacking her based on her travels, body, and lifestyle, rather than the inconsistencies in her narrative including exposing her nudes was wrong; invasion of her privacy; cyber-bullying; criminal and certainly waived social media users’ right to Article 33 and 34.

Like me, many Kenyans agree that Kagwe has been doing a great job. He took the reins of this Ministry at a time when there was zero trust in its management. Ministry of Health was one of the worst-performing ministries. Its former CS was out of her depth and proved incompetent. But before Kagwe could put his house in order, COVID-19 struck.

My unsolicited advice is that he shouldn’t ruin the gains he has made this far. He currently enjoys huge public goodwill and even though we agree Brenda story was a mishap, he should consider it a bad day in the office and soldier on. Secondly, he needs to cease his intention of going to war with social media users. Going to war with social media users is a battle he’s guaranteed to lose.

Let me explain. In the first quarterly labor data released this year by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), there were over 4 million youths recorded jobless. With colleges and universities closed, we have an additional 600,000 lads and lasses at home. On top of this, we have an additional 3.1 million students in Secondary Schools and 5.6 million in primary schools all at home. In ordinary circumstances, these lads and lasses would go to malls, swimming pools, classes, libraries, laboratories, school trips, clubs and bars etc. But these aren’t ordinary circumstances and so this all cohort is at home. Cooped up in little cubes after the Government banned all forms of social gathering.

The curfew has made this highly restless group more restless. More like a bull that has smelt blood. This means that you have men and women with so much time and so much energy but doesn’t have anywhere to channel it. These youths however, do have smartphones and internet.

Thirdly, in dealing with social media criticism, Kagwe needs a good and experienced battalion in the name of a Press corp. For example, it is not his job to respond to every social media criticism out there. That job is for his Press Corp. Let him get a good team that understands social media. Men and women of integrity that influences these age group. People who can argue calmly and counter-arguments while debunking the ubiquitous myths and rumors regarding COVID-19 while reinforcing the Ministry’s position. 

Lastly, those of us in the media industry are not lost to Kagwe’s tenure as the Minister of Information and Communications. We are alive to the fact that it was his time that the media witnessed its darkest of period when masked policemen raided the Standard Group premises. Let him not allow those ghosts to follow him at the Ministry of Health. 

Ohaga Ohaga is a Kenyan Journalist, Writer, and Communication Specialist with special interest in Media Law and Political Communication. He remains a close observer of, and participant in, Journalism and the Media.