This archive report was first published on 20 May 2020.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, its impact on women's livelihoods in Kenya has been nothing short of devastating. According to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the disease has been lethal to women's livelihoods, with almost half of them rendered jobless.
Published on May 20, 2020, the survey found that while only 34.1% of working-age males were out of work, more than half of the females, 51%, were unemployed by the time of the survey, which was done between May 2 and 9.
The data also reveals that adults who were not working might have increased by four million to hit 10.9 million compared to seven million in December last year.
Experts argue that the huge jump in unemployment among women reflects the kind of jobs that they do, with most of them eking a living in occupations that easily buckled under the weight of the pandemic as the government implemented draconian measures aimed at stopping the spread of the disease.
According to Economic Survey 2020, there were 2.9 million Kenyans that were assured of some regular paycheck, meaning they were in wage employment. However, majority of Kenyans, about 15 million, got their daily bread from the jua kali sector where wages are tiny and erratic and there is almost no job security.
“About two thirds (65.3 per cent) males were in the labour force, while slightly more than half (51.2 per cent) of the females were found to be outside the labour force in the reference period,” said Ukur Yatani, the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary.
Already, a lot of hotels have sent workers home on unpaid leave following the implementation of social distancing rules that has seen the government prohibit such gatherings. But it is not just women that will be hurt by the pandemic. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found that COVID-19 will also widen the gap between the rich and the poor.
Yatani said because most of the people affected by this crisis are in informal settlements, the government had unveiled a cash transfer programme that will see households in slums receive a stipend on a weekly basis. This, said the CS, will also keep the slum economy running.
However, of the households that had problems paying rent, only 8.7 per cent received a waiver or relief from their landlords for the month in review, which Yatani said was too small.
There has been a push for landlords to waive or reduce rent so as to cushion Kenyans who have lost jobs as a result of COVID-19. The government has, however, ruled out implementing this proposal, arguing that it would destroy the industry.
