AFRICA/KENYA - "Covid-19 is a serious reality. The future belongs only to the Risen Christ", writes a missionary

Weru (Agenzia Fides) - "The awareness that the disease was serious and pandemic has now become reality", writes from Kenya Don Vittorio Grigoletto, fidei donum priest on a mission in Weru, in the dicoesi of Nyahururu, established on the plateau of Nyandarwa and South Laikipia (north of Nairobi). "In fact, at the beginning there was almost disbelief and suspicion since only three infections had emerged, including an asymptomatic Catholic priest who returned from Rome after his university studies, but who was not under quarantine. To date, despite being the 15th country most affected by the virus out of 51 on the continent, the ninth death due to Covid-19 in the country has been recorded, while the total number of confirmed cases has risen to 208 and 9 recovered".
"In reality - explains Don Vittorio - among people who live on agriculture and subsistence farming or little more, and who follow the news via radio or television, with very few who read the national newspapers, not much is known: one is aware of the disease that came from China and that has particularly affected Italy. But without realizing the danger. However, the people obeyed the civil and religious authorities immediately, refraining from attending churches, mosques and gatherings of countless religious sects. Ordinary people also welcomed the strict curfew order from seven in the evening until sunrise".
"In Africa, a place of drought, hunger, grasshoppers, - notes the priest - hundreds of thousands of people die each year due to malaria, diabetes, Ebola, and there is a very worrying infant mortality rate. Africa's ability to endure pain, deprivation and death is not comparable to that of white people in general".
The priest notes: "President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered the lock-down of the metropolis of Nairobi and the peripheral areas around. But how will it be possible to close the various slums full of people who live on occasional jobs and in misery? If the infection will run its course as in European countries or as in America, there will certainly be a humanitarian disaster here". There are worrying signs: "Even now the economy of the country is almost collapsing. Hospitals have neither medical means nor trained and competent staff to deal with such an unexpected pandemic. Security forces can do very little. Proof of this is that the various criminal gangs are taking advantage of the curfew and of the people who are at home and of the few controls. The corruption itself is rampant, with the millions of face masks donated by China and other nations, which seem to have disappeared. Face masks on the black market cost half the wages of an average worker".
"Here in Nyandarua County there are still no full-blown cases. In our North Kinangop Catholic Hospital they are on the alert and have already set up Intensive care Units and places for isolation. Until now I have not seen anyone circulate with a face mask, I too, do not have one, also because they are difficult to find", remarks Don Grigoletto.
The four Italian priests of the Diocese of Nyahururu are doing well. "I am in Weru, among high, cold and rainy lands. We have faith in the future that belongs only to our Lord, the Risen Christ", he concludes. (VG/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 15/4/2020)

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