Thank you for visiting our new Covid-19 Poverty Monitor. To find out more about the project, visit our blog about the project launch.

Areas of concern for the poorest and potential impoverishment

Lost livelihoods: Movement restrictions have resulted in lost income for small businesses and employed people with limited labour rights, such as domestic and transport workers. The closure of local markets has reduced income of small traders.

Increased costs of staple goods: Respondents in rural and urban areas reported increased costs of food and other staple goods. This is supported by secondary evidence (see APRA, 2020). The price of soap is also reported to be high.

Caring responsibilities: Increased caring responsibilities for out-of-school children have restricted time for livelihoods generation.

Food security: Additional costs of food staples combined with reduced income is leading to households reducing daily meals and threatening food security. The majority of households interviewed indicated eating one meal less per day since the outbreak began.

Access to health services: Fear of contracting the virus or being subjected to quarantine by attending hospitals is reportedly deterring some people from accessing health services for non-Covid related health issues.

Stigmatisation: Stigma has been reported among those showing unrelated symptoms (e.g. a cough), attended a funeral, or have a relative that died from Covid-19.

Social cohesion: Many respondents report a decline in social cohesion, particularly affecting informal support networks, the ability to attend church services, and simple greetings such as handshaking.

School closures: Disruptions to children’s education and increased caring responsibilities are the most widely reported impacts of government restrictions. Respondents reported impacts on children’s behaviour, lost interest in returning to school and increased demand for food in the household.

Teachers: Multiple respondents who are teachers or relied on teachers for household income reported losing their jobs or not being paid for work before lockdown.

Sectors most affected by containment measures

Markets for food and staple goods: The pandemic and containment measures coincided with the planting season in March. The imposed curfew and travel restrictions affected farmers and vulnerable populations in the food value chain. All respondents reported market disruptions affecting the price of staple goods, with the majority pointing to increased costs of food as a principal strain on household income and negatively impacting food security.

Informal workers and small businesses: The majority of Kenya’s employment, 82.7%, is in the informal sector where labour rights are minimal (World Bank, 2016). Informal workers do not have access to social insurance, and social protection provisions remain largely targeted to households that were assessed as vulnerable before the pandemic (World Bank, 2020). Some reported a total loss of income, and all reported at least partial loss leading to reduced wellbeing. 

Education: The most widely cited impact of government containment measures has been felt by the education sector. Teachers have reported losing their jobs and failing to receive pay for time worked before the pandemic. Added caring responsibilities among parents – mainly women, but also reported by men – have put a strain on livelihoods generation. Children’s disrupted learning is reportedly leading to disinterest among children to return to school, with potential long-term effects on education outcomes.

Transport and travel restrictions: Those working in the transport industry were affected by the curfew, lockdown and social distancing. Cost of public transport increased due to the need to carry fewer passengers to adhere to the social distancing measures. The boda boda and taxi transport network faced a reduction in the number of customers. Long-distance journeys have been affected by border closures and curfew hours.

Governance and security: Court activities were scaled-down, and all appeals, hearings and civil cases were suspended. There is an increase in reports of gender violence cases at household level which is attributed to loss of employment, no income, depression and strict Covid-19 measures and there have been no courts to address these cases.

Coping strategies being employed by poor and non-poor households

Migration: Respondents in rural areas had children return from urban areas who had lost their jobs or were struggling to afford daily costs. A respondent in Nairobi sent his family to live in a rural area to minimise household costs. In Nairobi, respondents report moving in with friends or relatives due to being unable to pay rent or to share food costs. 

Informal support through networks: Many households are relying on support from informal network, friends and relatives in the form of food assistance, lodging and loans.

Selling assets: Respondents report selling household items and appliances to smooth out consumption, namely of food. One respondent reported selling her spare wheelchair and another reported selling their children’s textbooks to buy food.

Programmes in place to mitigate impoverishment due to Covid-19

Food distribution: Respondents reported that food support was being distributed in their communities but expressed concerns that this was not being allocated effectively to those most in need.

Pensions: The only social assistance identified by respondents were pensions. Some reported delayed payments, though the Kenyan government allocated additional funding in April to clear arrears in payments (The Star, April 19 2020). 

Social protection:  Kenya’s social protection system targeted older people and orphans with cash transfers prior to the pandemic, with overall protection low at just 10.4% (ILO, 2020). The national treasury has allocated an additional 10 billion shillings to this programme since the pandemic. One respondent reported receiving a Covid-19 reprieve cash transfer worth 1000 shillings per week.

Key external sources

To find out more about the impacts of Covid-19 on poverty in Kenya, please explore the following sources that were reviewed for this bulletin:

This project was made possible with support from HelpAge International.