The Impact of Covid-19 (Coronavirus) Pandemic in Kenya

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected several areas and sectors in Kenya which has disrupted the general livelihoods of Kenyan’s to a great extent. Agriculture is not an exception to the sectors that have been affected by the pandemic. 

Notably, agriculture is the backbone of Kenya's economy and plays a major role in ensuring food and nutrition security of the population. The agricultural sector also contributes to about 60% of the country's foreign exchange and provides employment opportunities to about 70% of the total population. Besides, it contributes about 25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

                   Collective Farming  (Image Credits: Joseph Kanyi)

In Kenya, Agriculture is mainly carried out in rural areas and plays a major role in the rural economy. Most farmers in rural areas and are the elderly whose immune systems are compromised thus susceptible to the coronavirus disease. Therefore despite the Ministry of Agriculture urging them to continue with production to ensure food security, most of them are considering the potential threat COVID-19 poses to their safety and health thus giving up on production. 

Secondly, the ongoing restrictions on the movement have caused a strain in some areas on farmers' ability to access markets and to buy inputs and sell products. The local markets and some stores are being closed, and supply chains have been restricted due to quarantines, sick truck drivers, sick sale representatives, sick farmers, border closures, and trade restrictions.  Large scale producers of farm products like poultry, milk, and fresh produce are forced to scale down their production because of the accumulating farm's losses.

                       Poultry farming (Photo credits: The Standard)

There is also reduced income to the which has limited farmers’ ability to hire farm labor, which is also highly restricted because collective work has been banned in fields. Attendance of farmer field schools agriculture cooperative meetings cannot be carried out too hence extension services cannot be disseminated. This is because of the social distancing measures being promoted so as to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. 

                 Image Indicating Social Distancing (Credits: KFLY.com)

There is also a labor shortage in the production and processing of food products and food supply hence the prices of common foodstuffs have increased drastically. According to The Standard media, the prices of common consumer products has increased by 6.37% in March, which is the month the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Kenya (Learn more here). This implies that with time overall production and availability of food will be highly affected and Kenya is at risk of a looming food crisis

Due to the pandemic, the government has diverted most of its funds to fight the Coronavirus pandemic which has led to less attention on other illnesses such as HIV and AIDS where patients rely on the provision of ARVs by the government. Also, before the pandemic, there was an invasion of locusts that has now been set aside and these locusts have been destroying millions of arable and pastoral areas hence posing a great risk to food security. (Learn more here)

                         Locusts in Kenya (Image credits: Ben Curtis)

Economic activities have also been interrupted and due to restrictions and curfews, some people have lost their jobs due to the shrinking economy (Learn more here). Some are facing pay cuts and unpaid leaves. The poor societies especially those in urban-slum areas can hardly access food and other basic needs since there are no casual jobs at the moment.

                Unemployment due to Coronavirus (Credit: GettyImages)

Job Insecurity and reduced income has caused the low purchasing power of the vulnerable individuals, there is change is eating habits and people are consuming less diverse diets due to limited access to nutritious meals. Due to social distancing, there is less traffic in hotels and most individuals working in hotels have lost their jobs.

                                         (Credits: Bankrate.com)

The social lives and culture have been disrupted since the attendance of weddings and burials has been restricted. The stay at home directives has been observed to lead to rising in social problems like domestic violence among several families.

(Image Credits: Daily News)

Millions of children are already missing out on the school. Schools and students are encouraged to conduct virtual learning which is not viable in rural areas that lack electricity and gadgets to support such an initiative. Some of the children are also missing school meals which some have been relying upon which affects their access to nutritious meals.

                         Empty Classes (Image credits: Boston University)

                     School Feeding Programme (Image Credits: Daily Nation)

It is commendable that the government of Kenya and other African countries mobilize efforts that will mitigate the effect of pandemics like COVID-19 and build resilience in case we face other pandemics in the future.