This archive report was first published on 31 July 2020.
July 25, 2020, was a day like any other in East Africa, with news of elections dominating the headlines. In Tanzania, the date for the next election was revealed as October 28, while in Uganda, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni picked up nomination forms for next year's early vote.
However, amidst the election drama, a sense of crisis loomed large. The COVID-19 pandemic had brought the region to its knees, with millions of people losing their livelihoods and economic models being severely tested.
As one recent story in Daily Nation highlighted, the pandemic had taken a devastating toll on the working class, with photographs showing Nairobi's battered matatus and buses filled with people fleeing the city in search of better opportunities.
Uganda and Tanzania were not immune to the crisis, with the former seeing a version of the same and the latter seemingly unaffected by the pandemic, at least on the surface.
Yet, despite the challenges, the region was forced to go through with the elections, with many questioning the relevance of the polls in the face of a looming disaster.
It was in this context that Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta announced a national and county governments' summit on COVID-19, a move that many saw as a step in the right direction.
