Thought Reader: Government needs to invest in trust building......

When the government announced that Patient Zero and Patient One in the Kenyan Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic had recovered, a section of Kenyans took to the social media to discredit the reports.

Some insisted that the recovered duo had been coached to lie to Kenyans based on what they claimed were glaring inconsistencies in how they got sick, treated and recovered. What later followed was trolling of the patients in total disregard to their mental wellbeing.

The apparent lack of trust in government communication at a time when the country is handling the covid-19 pandemic adds to the number of battlefronts that the government has to fight in order to beat the pandemic whose number of patients is increasing exponentially.

The government has to on one hand handle a health crisis while on the other is a trust crisis. The Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe has been praised as just the right man to handle the crisis. He is authoritative, has communicative presence and does not shy away from responding to media questions.

However, the minister is caught up in low trust of government communication. The Minister could not hide his anger over the manner in which a section of Kenyans had taken reports of the healing with cynicism terming it as triviali

zing the issue by terming it a “PR” exercise.

The skeptical manner in which Kenyans responded can be explained within the general context of government communication.

Crisis communication scholars aver that government communication is likely to be received with skepticism based on a number of factors. Lee (2009) identifies eight factors that characterize the uniqueness of a government crisis. Among the factors is the evaluative aspect of Governments handling of past crises and the ability to evaluate a crisis within the broader thematic context of leadership rather than in relation to a specific episode.

Coupled with that is the rise of social media users whose use social media platforms to air their voices at times at the expense of formal government communication. According to Forbes, social media platforms promotes free speech and empower(ment)….. by handing them (social media users) a global megaphone with which to speak directly to the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic hit the country when public confidence and trust on the government was low. Cries of disillusion and disenchantment on the performance of the country’s economy were high with stakeholders claiming that the economic situation in the country was not conducive to business. In fact certain some companies had been forced to cut costs or even shut down thus affecting employment. Political temperatures were also high with divisions over the Building Bridges Initiative and the Jubilee Party divisions among others. So, the Covid-19 pandemic made a worse situation worse.

What then can the government do to improve perception and trust of its communication?

The government needs to pursue trust building as one of the goals of ensuring that the public trust its communication.

Although trust building is a long term goal, the government can achieve the same by ensuring open, honest, timely and consistent communication. Public communicators should not be angry on why the public do not trust them but rather should reflect on the lack of trust and seek to improve it. With a proactive method towards addressing issues, the government can build the public’s trust. Trust will no doubt create