Page 18 - Aidlink Annual Report 2020
P. 18

   COUNTRY PROFILE KENYA
 Total spend
delivering programmes to some of the most vulnerable people in Kenya
€445,993 €434,261 2019 2020
6,807 children
and their families helped
44.5%
of people helped were women
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic threatens recent economic development in Kenya, decimating the livelihoods of the poorest communities.
In 2015, Kenya was upgraded to a ‘lower-middle-income’ country reflecting positive economic developments over the past decade. But the emergence of the Covid-19 crisis has deeply impacted the economy. The pandemic has increased poverty by four percentage points, equating to an additional 2 million people living in poverty, with sharp decreases in incomes and employment, increased food insecurity and elevated pain and human suffering.
In Kenya, Aidlink’s work focuses on nomadic pastoralist communities in two arid and semi-arid counties where most of Kenya’s poor live – Turkana and Kajiado. In both counties, a sizeable proportion of people lack access to basic essential services such as water, education, and health.
As nomadic pastoralists, the Turkana and Masai rely heavily on their animals, travelling great distances with them in search of water and pasture. In recent years, these communities have been subject to the devastating impacts of climate change. In Turkana County, drought used to occur every 10-15 years, now it is more common, happening every 2-3 years.
2020 was a particularly challenging year for the Turkana and Masai. The existing challenge of prolonged drought and the worst locust infestation in over 70 years were compounded by the Covid-19 pandemic and government enforced restrictions. Together, these events have decimated people’s food security and livelihoods.
The intersection between gender and the pandemic
is particularly relevant among the Masai and Turkana communities. Both are patriarchal, polygamist societies, with women and girls limited to domestic roles and denied ownership of livestock and property. Lockdown poverty has forced many desperate families to marry off under-age daughters to ease expenses, with increasing numbers of girls undergoing FGM as communities return to traditional customs.
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