Kenya Reopens Schools Amid Baffling Coronavirus Claims

This article is part of IranWire's ongoing coverage of Covid-19 disinformation in different countries, in partnership with Health Studio.

By Shon Osimbo for Health Studio

Kenya formally reopened all schools on Monday, January 4  after nine months of school closures due to Covid-19, which at the time of writing had officially claimed the lives of over 1700 people in the country.

Gradual school reopenings had begun in the country in October with students in Grades Four and Eight, and in Form Four, returning to class in order to prepare for their examinations. Thousands of students were introduced to the “new normal2 on their first day back as they were asked to wear masks and stand in long lines to get their temperatures checked before making their way into the classrooms.

Schoolchildren get their temperatures checked before entering a primary school in Nairobi.

The partial reopening in October had been followed by a number of educational institutions across the country reporting positive cases of Covid-19 affecting both students and teachers. This prompted some of them to close down again. Many parents therefore raised concerns about their children being exposed to coronavirus ahead of the nationwide reopenings in January.

In a statement on November 17, 2020, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha had sought to reassure the country that the Ministry has established strict guidelines – including social distancing, regular hand-washing and disinfecting surfaces – that would be adhered to by schools. “I wish to assure the country,” he said, “that the government is determined to ensure a safe reopening and learning from our schools. In doing so, we are drawing important lessons from the partial reopening that has taken place since October. We are confident that we will remain on the right trajectory to finding the winning formula that will ensure our learning institutions are safe for our learners and teachers.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta also directed county health departments to maintain constant surveillance of schools for Covid-19, including through random testing of students and by keeping records of infection trends in schools.

Education institutions still face obstacles to maintaining social distancing as many public schools in the country are overcrowded. The Ministry of Education has endorsed outdoor learning as a means of ensuring that social distancing is adhered to.

In December CS Magoha also asked headteachers to be innovative and suggested schools could hold face-to-face classes outdoors. He doubled down on the remarks in January, adding: “Should some of the teachers decide, because of social distancing – there’s a lime tree there, there are others there – that this classroom should go and have two classrooms in the morning outside, there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s more oxygen outside. The tree, which you people laugh at, removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and adds oxygen there, in case you don’t know. And it is the oxygen that is going to help you to fight the corona.”

The “outdoor learning” directive came after the Kenyan government had failed to deliver on a promise of new desks for public schools. There is no evidence to support the claim that being outdoors protects people from contracting severe Covid-19.

A socially-distanced primary school morning parade in Nairobi.

The National Emergency Response Committee, which was tasked with ensuring that students could return to school safely, has also forbidden co-curricular activities involving more than one school. It stated that interaction between students from different schools might increase the chances of coronavirus spreading between students. “All extra-curricular activities such as sports, drama, music and prize-giving days,” it stated, “involving more than one school remain prohibited for the next 90 days. All exchange visits between schools shall remain prohibited for the same period.”