Covid-19 Lockdown in Kenya
Tough choices for Nairobi’s urban poor, between health safety and starvation
“Everything was fine until the first coronavirus case was reported in Kenya. I could make enough money to feed my family and save for school fees. In the last two weeks, I have only sold two trousers. I have exhausted my savings.” Fatuma Mohamed, who for 12 years has been moving men’s wares around residential estates of Nairobi recently told Business Daily. Agnes Maua, a 20-year-old greengrocer, worries that she may have to close down with a curfew now in place. “…I used to make the highest sales between 6pm and 8pm but now we have a curfew. Am disillusioned,”. She also told Business Daily. Fatuma and Agnes woes represent the food insecurity impacts Nairobi urban residents are experiencing as the Kenya government swiftly moves to contain the spread of the corona virus. It is tough choices for Nairobi’s urban poor, between health safety and starvation. Many are choosing the coronavirus health risk. But should it be a case of either or?
Until 12th March 2020, to the average Kenyan, the COVID-19 pandemic sounded like the usual world news, tucked far away in small corners of local daily newspapers. A few people threw cautionary words, that a storm was brewing, and the country needed to prepare for it. The Ministry of Health stationed its staff at the entry point of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with their laser gadgets to check any suspicious high temperatures of incoming passengers. Then there was uproar by citizens as a Chinese plane landed in Nairobi with 239 passengers. The passengers were to self-quarantine, at a time when the term carried little seriousness — we were still safe anyway. Then the health ministry’s cabinet secretary broke the news of the first case, accompanied by raft of measures to curb its spread.
The first batch of measures were closure of learning institutions (schools, colleges, universities), ban on international travel for civil servants and ban on public gatherings, instructions for handwashing in public transport and public spaces. Barely two weeks after the report of the first case, with 28 cases in record, the president took the lead to declare even more stringent measures — hopefully to remain ahead of the curve.
The formal sector was the first to get reprieve with tax cuts and lowering of bank interest rates. Top civil servants were to lead by example by taking pay cuts. Bars and entertainment joints were ordered to close within under 12 hours. In and out-bound international flights were halted. Citizens were ordered to work from home and observe social distance. A local telecom, Telkom partnered with Google Loon for airspace balloons to provide internet across the country. The stringent of all was declaration of a curfew from 7pm to 5am starting 27th March 2020. Although well intensioned, these measures and their enforcement by the security wing of the government have left many urban residents torn between choosing health safety or starvation. The measures appear to have favoured the formal sector while largely excluding residents whose livelihoods are pegged on informal sector.
Household incomes have dwindled as formal and informal private sectors absorb the shock of the measures. Many business such as restaurants, hotels and airlines have had to downscale or shut down completely while others have laid off their temporary staff or declared salary pay cuts.
About half of Nairobi’s urban labour force works in informal sector comprising owners and casual labourers in service, industrial/manufacturing enterprises, construction sites, bars and food restaurants, public transport, food retail such as Mama Mboga green grocers, kiosk owners and merchandise vendors. Following the limit-coronavirus-spread measures, these businesses now have less working hours or far fewer clients to trade with as the stay-home directives take root. The clients have also less disposable income and have become frugal in spending, buying mainly on the basic minimums. Some have opted to move their children upcountry, to stay with grandparents as a measure to reduce food costs. Street families are on the receiving end as restaurants have closed and there are less people in the inner city to give them alms.
The health ministry’s directives for residents to stay home and observe social distancing has largely been ignored. As a trader at the Muthurwa market posed, “If I stay at home, my children will still expect to eat at the end of the day. Will the government provide that?”. Boda boda (motorbike taxi) riders echo similar sentiments as on rider told a Guardian correspondent. — ““Business is not normal, but we cannot live in quarantine. I have three children and a wife to feed. I’ve not thought about stopping, I depend on this job.”
For Nairobi’s urban residents and the government, it’s a tricky balancing act, between measures to pursue SDG-3 to ensure healthy lives and SDG-2 to end hunger and malnutrition. It appears they are mutually exclusive. But they should not. Solutions to address this divergence urgently need to be sought. The government has recently proposed to establish a Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund to mobilise financial resources as well as plan utilisation of the voluntary salary cuts. Other than purchase and provision of health services, it is not yet clear whether the fund will also support provision of free food for household that are most affected by the limit-coronavirus-spread measures.
Written by Serah Kiragu-Wissler.
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative aiming to provide a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Central to our approach are the experiences of young, urban and peri-urban farmers, street vendors and informal retailers, and low-income consumers. Follow @CovidFoodFuture on Twitter. Covid-19 Food/Future is an initiative by TMG. ThinkTank for Sustainability (www.tmg-thinktank.com), or on Twitter @TMG_think. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
