Introduction
Background
Kenyan government’s COVID-19 response measures and intervention programs
Measure | Start date | End date |
---|---|---|
Daily curfew | 27th March 2020 | 20th October 2021 |
Wearing of face masks | 6th April 2020 | 11th March 2022 |
Ban on public gatherings | 27th March 2020 | 11th March 2022 |
Social distancing | 27th March 2020 | 11th March 2022 |
Movement restrictions (lockdowns) | 16th March 2020 | 7th July 2020 |
Economic relief measures (tax relief and reduction of income tax, reduction of turnover tax, appropriation of cash to elderly and other vulnerable persons through cash transfers, temporary suspension of Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) listing, reduction of VAT from 16 to 14%, payment of pending bills, payment of verified VAT claims, lowering of Central Bank lending rates from 8.25 to 7.25%) | 25th March 2020 | 1st January 2021 (for tax measures) 27th November 2020 (for cash transfers) |
Encouragement of work from-home framework | 27th March 2020 |
Methodology
Study design and approach
Study settings
Study population and sampling
Data collection methods and sample size
Data analysis
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Results
Characteristics of the study participants
Participants’ characteristics | Total N = 80 | |
---|---|---|
n | % | |
Participants missing individual data | 17 | 21 |
Participants with individual data | 63 | 79 |
Village of residence | ||
Korogocho | 30 | 47.6 |
Viwandani | 33 | 52.4 |
Age group | ||
< 24 years old | 14 | 22.2 |
25–35 years old | 16 | 25.4 |
36–55 years old | 26 | 41.3 |
56 years and above | 7 | 11.1 |
Gender | ||
Female | 32 | 50.8 |
Male | 31 | 49.2 |
Education level | ||
Elementary school | 29 | 46.0 |
Secondary school | 27 | 42.9 |
College/university | 7 | 11.1 |
Occupation | ||
Unemployed | 13 | 20.6 |
Casual labor | 17 | 27.0 |
Own business | 30 | 47.6 |
Employed | 3 | 4.8 |
Marital status | ||
Married | 32 | 50.8 |
Single | 24 | 38.1 |
Divorced/separated | 4 | 6.3 |
Widowed | 3 | 4.8 |
Religion | ||
Christian | 58 | 92.1 |
Muslim | 5 | 7.9 |
Ethnicity | ||
Kikuyu | 20 | 31.7 |
Luo | 13 | 20.6 |
Luhya | 12 | 19.0 |
Kamba | 8 | 12.7 |
Kisii | 6 | 9.5 |
Borana | 4 | 6.3 |
Lived experiences with regards to food security and the human right to food
Livelihoods
“... This is the effect of COVID-19 and as you can see in the picture people are idle. So, people have lost their jobs so the picture represents how people are idle in the community.” (Photovoice, mixed participants, Korogocho).
“My parents were not able to pay my school fees, so I dropped out of school in class seven. When I was 23 years, I was lucky to get a job at a factory. Before the corona pandemic was in the country, life was not so hard. We had enough food to eat, clothes to wear, there was happiness in my family. After the pandemic [struck], life became harder. The factory laid me off due to COVID 19 measures like social distancing. Life became hard because of the responsibilities, and I did not have money to care for my children. I did not have money to pay rent. Eventually, my neighbors took my children to feed them because I was not in a position to do so. Now that life is a little bit back to normal, I tried going back to my old job however due to lack of education; I did not manage to get my old job back. People who have higher education than me and had previously lost their jobs are the ones who are doing my job right now”. (Purity, digital storytelling speaker 1).
“Before corona, my husband used to work at an industry in Baba Dogo. Life was good before corona. Ever since the pandemic, life changed. My husband lost his job at the industry because the company reduced its production and the government put in measures for example social distancing [ …] Food became hard to find due to change in income […] The situation at home worsened and […] the arguments at home every day led to my husband leaving and I was left alone with the children” (Mama Wangechi, digital storytelling speaker 2).
“...Businesses were affected because there were shops that were closing at eleven or ten but when the curfew was imposed, they couldn’t close late and that affected their business which has reduced their incomes...” (Photovoice, mixed participants, Viwandani).
“...Personally COVID-19 has really affected us because my husband lost his job, the business I had was also affected because the customers also lost their jobs, so they didn’t have money – the few that are there all ask for debts and they don’t even repay it sooner. You need food but don’t have money to buy the food so it really affected us.” (FGD, adult females, Viwandani).
Food security and violation of the right to food
“…A child has the right to food and humans have right to food, but you don’t have the means to look for the food so that right is already violated. So, unless they would get these organizations to support, and they wouldn’t support the whole community so some people would still miss out. That was discrimination on the right to food” (FGD adults female Korogocho).
“Earlier [before COVID 19] we used to have meals thrice a day, but things changed since Corona came. We used to drink tea with milk but nowadays we drink hot water …. or borrow from the shops and from the vendors in the neighborhood but not every day because they would not accept” (Mama Wangechi, digital storytelling speaker 2).
Food availability
You know there were people who transported the foods from upcountry to sell here and when the curfew was imposed it was expensive to apply for travelling letters and the cost of food had to increase. So only a little food was available, and it was also expensive” (FGD, traders, Viwandani).
“...Businesses reduced because people were few in the community and those who were working also reduced so business was really affected. If you look at the photo you will see the market is almost empty. So, businesses went very low...” (Photovoice, mixed group, Viwandani).
“Sometimes we do get fish or yoghurt that is dumped when the planes fly in, and they are left in the planes.” (FGD, adult males, Korogocho).
Food accessibility
“...The prices of things that people use daily such as food, water and soap were hiked due to the curfew and change in business hours due to COVID-19. So, you find that if you were buying a sack of maize at two thousand shillings, now it costs two thousand five hundred because they (vendors) have risked bringing it from the farms and the measures also make it such that if they were to bring five sacks of maize in a day, they end up bringing two or three because of cessation of movement during curfew time. So, the products found in the shops also had their prices hiked because the transportation time has been reduced….” (Photovoice, mixed group, Viwandani).
“...It was a challenge because you would find that kales were cheaper in Muthurwa (wholesale market) but transport cost was double so you would have to walk to buy the cheaper kales. So, the high transport cost also made it a challenge….” (FGD, adult males, Korogocho).
“...Also, you would find that for the vegetable sellers, I would (for example) have money after doing my job and earning from it but I cannot buy food because of the curfew, and they (food vendors) have closed. So, I would sleep hungry and yet I have the money...” (FGD, adult males, Korogocho).
Food adequacy
“...We have a food problem in Korogocho; if you have twenty shillings or thirty shillings you would use it to feed your family by buying superdip (powdered juice) and anyona, the bread (made of rejected breadcrumbs) that cost ten shillings (~$0.1)” (FGD, adult females, Korogocho).
“...The photo shows a challenge as there is food, but they are not eaten. So, it has affected the community because they don’t have money and that’s why the businesses people will sell their products for two days or a week and that is costly to them. And it is not even safe as we are supposed to eat fresh foods. But since there is no money people will not buy fresh foods and it’s not their liking...” (Photovoice, mixed group, Viwandani).
“So, what we don’t always understand is that why are these foods always dumped here. So, if you eat them and you don’t get affected then you will make it a routine. So that’s what the people survived on” (KII religious leader Korogocho).
“...It did affect their nutritional status. We had increased cases of malnutrition in the community especially amongst the under-fives...” (KII, PHN, Viwandani).
“The government also helped us by asking us to do physical practice so that we could boost our immune systems and to try and balance our diets by eating a lot of fruits and greens” (FGD, adult females, Korogocho).
Experiences regarding social protection measures and coping strategies for food
Social protection measures
“The food aid was quality because they would give out even a kilo of rice and a kilo of sugar and that would be good – also they would give out a kilo of beans so you would boil the rice and beans and that would be a good meal so even those who brought food aid really tried to give out balanced diet” (FGD adults male Korogocho).
“…We also had the government together with other partners putting in place hand washing points in various areas. We also had other partners coming in to provide cash transfers to most vulnerable patients like HIV and TB patients and those malnourished …” (KII, Public Health Nurse, Korogocho).
“After a while, the village elder called me and helped me get funding from OXFAM Red cross. Within a month, I got the money, and I was very happy because I was among the lucky few, as some people did not get the money. I paid my rent and the food I had been taking on credit from the shop and the vendors. […] I am grateful especially to the Red Cross for giving me the money. Without them, I would not have opened my food vending business” (Mama Wangechi, digital storytelling speaker2).
“…Kazi mtaani has really assisted youths – not only those youths, but they also have parents, and some have really assisted their parents through the earning though kazi mtaani…” (KII, Senior Chief, Korogocho).
“There was some cash transfers that was supposed to be sent to the citizens, the truth of the matter is that the officials are the ones getting the cash transfers. When an administrative leader comes, they are bribed – when food is brought for distribution, the administrative leader takes most of it” (FGD youths, mixed group).
Coping strategies
“...So, the children are at home, and they scavenge the dumpsite for food and if they find something else that they can sell they also go and sell it and get some money to buy something to eat. So all this is the effect of Corona virus which also caused lack of jobs...” (Photovoice, mixed group, Korogocho).
“So, it ended up that either we have breakfast and skip lunch so that we can have supper. So, food was a challenge and even now food is still a challenge in Korogocho” (IDI adult female Korogocho).
“.. Children decide to walk around and if they find an older man who promises them something, they will indulge into sex. So many girls got pregnant while boys started stealing. They started breaking into people’s homes and sell whatever they stole to get daily bread” (IDI youth female Korogocho).
“...There were people who started thinking about farming… If you walk in Korogocho you will realize that there is somebody with something small like a garden – something small in most of the areas... I remember there was this group…–they even planted mushrooms…. So they decided to plant mushrooms and they were selling to people. There are also people who have kales within their residential places...” -KII, CHV, Korogocho “…. On my side, there was a time I was idle, and I didn’t have any work so I started doing some farming because we had water the whole time of the pandemic – so I grew some kales and spinach which would always support me. Whenever I had flour, I would just get kales or spinach from the farm and eat them…” (FGD, adult females, Korogocho).
“...whoever got food would share with the rest as they waited for the other distribution. So, the food was not distributed throughout…. so that’s why we made groups in our community, if people from this group received, they would share with the others and when they also received, they would also share” (IDI, adult females, Viwandani).