In our series of Letters from African journalists, Waihiga Mwaura asks why so many Kenyans are not taking the global coronavirus seriously.
Despite global scientific data showing that Covid-19 is a deadly new strain of coronavirus, which has killed almost 600,000 people, if you publicly declare in Kenya that you have the virus then you are in danger of being castigated as a liar desperate for attention or a government stooge.
This began with Ivy Brenda Rotich, the first Covid-19 patient to leave hospital in April after treatment.
Ms Rotich was vilified on social media as someone supposedly sent to the media by the government to convince Kenyans that Covid-19 was real, and to keep donor funding flowing, ostensibly for the containment of the virus.
At the time Covid-19 was still considered a foreigner's disease and Africans were falsely thought by some to be resistant to it.
Today, despite more than 11,000 cases of Covid-19 and 200 deaths in Kenya, there are those who still say that the virus does not exist - from the gentleman who cleaned my vehicle last week insisting that it is the biggest lie of our time to fellow journalists saying that it is nothing more than a prolonged flu.
Indeed, a well-known motivational speaker and Pastor Robert Burale was recently accused of faking his Covid-19 positive status despite images showing that he was in a Nairobi hospital.
And Benson Musungu, the director of Youth Affairs in former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, was falsely accused of receiving a huge pay-out from the government to publicly say that he had received 15 days of treatment in the intensive care unit of a city hospital.
Unfortunately, such reactions have shamed many Covid-19 survivors into silence.
'MP fuels doubt'
Politicians and other leaders who have the ability to sway the masses are testing positive for Covid-19 but choosing to remain silent, possibly to avoid being stigmatised.
Thus, very few survivors or their loved ones go public with their experiences, and a common question asked on social media is: "Do you or your loved ones know anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19?"
And for some time now the most common answer I have seen is: "No."
<<Print>>