This archive report was first published on 8 July 2020.
Kenya: In Mathare, Clean Water Is Music, As Billian Shields the Kenyan Slum Against COVID-19 ¶
Published on July 8, 2020
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Kenya, the government has taken strict preventive measures to contain its spread. However, these measures have been criticized for not adequately addressing the needs of people living in rural or densely populated areas, such as Mathare, a slum in Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a 21-day ban on movement into and out of four towns, including Kilifi, Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kwale, where the highest number of COVID-19 cases have been reported. The lockdown was further extended for another 21 days by the President on April 25.
Kenya has so far reported 8,067 COVID-19 cases and 2,414 recoveries. A number of cases are from densely populated areas, including the slums, such as Kawangware and Dandora.
However, the challenge is how to prevent and contain the disease from spreading in these crowded settlements where social distancing and the availability of clean water for hand washing is a challenge.
According to the UN, slums are home to close to 40 percent of families in Africa. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and African leaders have raised their concerns about the potential challenge COVID-19 poses to slums and congested environments.
Billian, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of children and young people in Mathare, has shifted its focus to helping people during the global pandemic. The organization supplies about 20,000 litres of water two to three times a week into erected tanks, and also sets up hand washing points in the slums to ensure that people wash their hands regularly while outside their houses.
Billian Ojiwa, the founder of the organization, said that the move is a precautionary measure to help people protect themselves and reduce the risk of getting infected. He also called on the government to take up the task of supplying water to the slums and educating slum dwellers about how to protect themselves from being infected with COVID-19.
Billian has teamed up with other organizations to give food vouchers to the people in the slum, especially the vulnerable ones. The organization gives $5 vouchers to each household that have been identified by the Community Health Volunteers (CHV).
67-year old Agnes Mukonyo says before the pandemic she relied on her grandson and granddaughter to buy her food but since the lockdown announced by the government, they have been out of work because they are blue-collar workers. The food voucher has really helped her and her family because they now can eat something at least at the end of the day.
