The impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of Kenyan slum dwellers and the need for an integrated policy approach

This paper aims to deal with the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of disadvantaged persons living in slums in Kenya. Months after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya in March 2020, most of the studies that have been carried out pertaining to its impact on slum dwellers have concent...

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Published in:PloS one Vol. 17; no. 8; p. e0271196
Main Authors: Solymári, Daniel, Kairu, Edward, Czirják, Ráhel, Tarrósy, István
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 02.08.2022
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Aggression
Biology and Life Sciences
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Gender
Ghettos
Health aspects
Health services
Human rights
Marginalized groups
Medicine and Health Sciences
Nutrition
Organizations
Pandemics
People and Places
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Slums
Social Sciences
Society
Squatter settlements
Violence
Kenya
United States > US
Africa
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This paper aims to deal with the impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of disadvantaged persons living in slums in Kenya. Months after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya in March 2020, most of the studies that have been carried out pertaining to its impact on slum dwellers have concentrated on narrowly defined concerns e.g. the impact of COVID-19 on youth, gender based violence and nutrition. It is thus difficult to get a clear global picture of the overall impact of COVID-19 on the livelihoods of slum dwellers in Kenya. This paper relies on information gathered during a comprehensive qualitative micro study covering numerous aspects of slum dwellers’ livelihoods, as well as information that has been produced by the Ministry of Health, civil society organizations that work in specific slums, private research organizations as well as local and foreign media houses. The slums whose information is reported in this paper were selected to be indicative of the over 300 slums that are located in Nairobi and Mombasa, the two most important cities in Kenya. The analysis concludes that slum dwellers were potentially at a higher risk under the pressures of COVID-19 of deteriorating conditions with regard to the provision of health services, employment, gender-based violence, education and youth-related problems, and human rights violations, and offers several recommendations to the government.
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Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0271196