In this series of mini-interviews, researchers and respondents in the Kenya Financial Diaries reflect on their experiences. 

Parents across Kenya are receiving ambiguous messages about the timing of school re-openings amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The year 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the point in time when COVID-19 paralysed the world.

Between 7 September and 14 October, our team spoke with 207 participants from the Kenya Financial Diaries, tracing the ways COVID-19 was impacting their lives.

As we completed a new round of COVID-19 Diaries interviews in mid-October, we noticed a shift in the story of economic hardship.

On average, families in the Kenya Financial Diaries started to see improvements in their economic situation as of October 2020, but incomes are still far from normal.

The Covid-19 pandemic is throwing a curved ball at us. It has made planning virtually impossible.

After several years of “hustling,” my friend Njoroge saved money enough to construct his own little fruit shack in the Hurlingham suburb of Nairobi.

“Things are getting bad,” Vanessa told us. When we spoke with her in late June, her family had just about run out of food and were waiting for the next harvest.

As COVID-19 continues to ravage economies across the world, a key point of emerging macroeconomic focus is its variated impact at sectoral level.

How Kenyan mothers are keeping food on the table through the coronavirus crisis

As the world reels from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a key lesson it has taught us is the universality of our vulnerability.

The economic fallout engendered by COVID-19 has already been dire with many going without food and/or accruing different types of debt to stay afloat.

Agnes, 45, lives in rural Makueni with her children and elderly parents.  She had once been married, but her husband proved an unreliable partner.

Barriers to coronavirus prevention behaviour change in Kenya

When we spoke with Benson in April, he was feeling optimistic about getting through the COVID-19 crisis unscathed.  He worked in a factory that manufactured paper products, and toilet tissue was in high demand.  He was sure he would keep his job.  In June, like many of our respondents, his outlook was gloomier.

FSD Kenya and BFA Global held a webinar on the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on low-income households in Kenya on the afternoon of Thursday, June 11th, 2020.

After three months of Covid-19 restrictions, Jennifer’s economic options have run out.  She is five months pregnant, and the baby’s father has blocked her calls.  She hasn’t been able to pay rent in three months and worries that she and her children are on the verge of eviction.

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, FSD Kenya and BFA Global have been working to understand the human impacts—social, financial, and economic—by conducting qualitative phone interviews with previous respondents from the Kenya Financial Diaries.

Desperate for income, many Diaries respondents have gone back to work, but find it nearly impossible to earn a living.

The infection rate of COVID-19 is as yet low in Kenya, but the economic consequences are already biting.

Vera (45) lives in an informal settlement in Mombasa.  Usually it is just her at home these days.