Impact of COVID-19 on the Food Systems in Kenya

 

 *This is part of our series on the nexus between COVID-19 and food systems.

In the summer of 2020, I went to Kenya, a country I lived in for more than 10 years as a refugee, to visit my family. While I was there taking my fall and winter classes online, the positive side of COVID-19, I learned a lot about the aftermath of the pandemic on food security in the country.

In Kenya, the food system is going through extremely huge challenges. Some of these challenges arise from floods that destroyed many crops while desert locusts became a thorn in the flesh. “The locust swarms are the biggest in 25 years for Ethiopia and Somalia, and the worst Kenya has seen for 70 years,” (Devi, 2020).   COVID-19 restrictions in crop production, supply, and marketing posed an impassable obstacle.

Drought has been an incapacitating factor in Kenya. Thousands of animals, a backbone for many people in rural areas died from starvation. Therefore, there were already loose ends before the COVID-19 measures worsened the situation. 

The food supply mechanisms are undertaken on a small scale and most of them informal distributors between farmers and markets. These distributors were disrupted by COVID-19 rules, which prohibit crowds in main marketplaces. Many households in Nairobi and other important Kenyan places are not able to buy enough food because of limited supplies while the most affected were the lower-income people. Due to the broken supply system, farmers lost thousands of shillings in perishable goods in their farms.

The middle- and high-income classes seem to be better off because they can buy fresh goods from supermarkets. The economic inequality gap is quite wide in Kenya, a reason that natural disasters such as COVID-19 do not affect all Kenyans similarly.  For example, laying off employees when the government does not support them causes daunting frustration among the laid off.  This is not the same for the upper-class citizens who either own businesses such as Safaricom or have well-paying permanent government jobs.  

 

Survival Dilemma among workers

Many small businesses have had to shut down because of the extended curfew time and lack of government incentives, forcing businesses to operate not earlier or later than 10 pm until 4 am disadvantages them. Motor bike (commonly known as a boda-boda) is the most used form of transport because of its flexibility. The curfew restrictions do not, however, allow indigent owners to work any time after 10 pm, thus preventing them from eking out a living. 

Small scale retailers such as those who sell camel milk in Eastleigh, a Somali Community dominated region of Nairobi, are among those who are facing a huge shortage of camel milk. Camel milk is transported from the remote countryside where camels find fresh pasture by boda-boda and vans. Limited movement is due to COVID-19 is to blame for the reduction. Camel milk is very much valued and used in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia because of its traditionally known high quality. Many studies have reported that camel milk has a very high concentration of mono-and polyunsaturated fatty acids, serum albumin, lactoferrin, immunoglobulin's, vitamins C, and E, lysozyme, manganese, and iron, as well as the hormone insulin. Therefore, camel milk can be prescribed as a remedy to combat many human illnesses (Kaskous, 2016).

The stay-at-home policy response to the pandemic exposes vulnerable Kenyans across the country because they do not receive any government assistance. As a third-world country, Kenya is not able to support its citizens in a bid to uphold COVID-19 regulations. I traveled to North Eastern Kenya, a ‘Somali-Kenyan’ community-dominated province and one that shares a border with Somalia. COVID-19 impacted the food security of this province severely because of the instability created by insurgent groups such as Al-Shabab and the political rift between Kenya and Somalia that stopped random trade activities across the border.

 

Corruption in Kenya exacerbates the living conditions of citizens

The undeniable reality of economic strain in Kenya is accompanied by overwhelming corruption in government institutions. Government officials, especially those in the Ministry of Health have been accused of fraudulent funds mismanagement. COVID-19 funds are suspected to have been used for different purposes instead of supporting poor Kenyans’ need to have food on the table as well as providing personal protective equipment as a shield against the virus.

The price of Ugali (Kenya’s most stable food) and supposedly the cheapest food is barely affordable for many Kenyans both in the cities and rural residents. Distrust between government and local farmers undermines people’s access to fresh farm products, which most Kenyans depend on since they cannot afford food in supermarkets.

Similarly, unemployment has soared among young people. Of course, the pandemic has made a visible contribution to unemployment but that is not it all; nepotism, bribery, and greed already besmirch most governance. The country is engaged in two fights: one with COVID-19 and the other with corruption.

 Ugali and sukumawiki

What needs to be done

Food security is the backbone of any society whether developed or underdeveloped. All other development indicators such as security, literacy, health, and technology build upon the foundation of food security. Therefore, it is a hard truth that good governance will fail if leaders do not ameliorate hunger.

Corruption with impunity must be limited as much as possible by punishing perpetrators in strict compliance with the rule of law. This would result in a fairer distribution of wealth, which would be more conducive to a safe, inclusive, and accommodating system. The impact of the pandemic on food security and resilience is enormous in Kenya, increasing its fragility.  

 

Reference

 

Devi, S. (2020). Locust swarms in east Africa could be “a catastrophe.” The Lancet (British Edition), 395, 547–547.

Kaskous, S. (2016). Importance of camel milk for human health. Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture, 28(3), 158–163. https://doi.org/10.9755/ejfa.2015-05-296

 

Gorad Muhumed

Undergraduate Research Assistant

ECVOntario

University of Guelph