Muslims faithful take part in prayers during the first Friday of prayers during the holy month of Ramadhan outside Jamia Mosque Mall, Nairobi [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The adverse impact of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of loss of lives, income, jobs and businesses cannot be accurately quantified.

Access to mosques and churches has been restricted to minimise the rate of Covid-19 infections among the congregation. Mosques are not only a place of prayer, is central to a life of a Muslim. The Arabic word for mosque is ‘Masjid’ which means the place of prostration.

It is in the mosques that Muslims gather for prayers, undertake studies, celebrate holy festivals like Ramadhan, address challenges and obtain guidance, among others.

This year’s Ramadhan is to be observed away from mosques in the counties of Nairobi , Nakuru , Kiambu , Machakos and Kajiado, which are considered the ‘Red Zone’ in terms of Covid-19 infection rates. In other parts of the country, mosques are operating at a one third capacity.

This should, however, not be a reason for ‘spiritual distancing’ and affect the quality of relationship between individuals and the Supreme Being.

Muslims ought to continue with worship and prayers, and minimise worldly distractions especially during this holy month.

With reduced income due to job losses and collapse of businesses, Muslims have to strengthen their sense of communal support and kindness to minimise the impact on the less fortunate.

According to the World Bank report on Kenya’s Economic Outlook 2020, the economic and social disruptions induced by the pandemic have eroded progress in poverty reduction, forcing an estimated two million more Kenyans into poverty.

There is need to be innovative and mosques may need to undertake the  registration of people who are vulnerable especially the elderly, widows, orphans and people living with disability, among others.

We have compelling reasons to institutionalise best practice in collecting and managing donations like sadaqa and zakat.

The leadership of the mosques may explore ways to tap the energy, passion, know-how and enthusiasm of the youth to solve some of the pressing issues of the day using technology and innovation.

It is possible to entice tech-savvy Muslim youth to utilise their intelligence and create apps to mobilise donations and help facilitate transfers to the needy, and measure the impact of such interventions.

Donations should go beyond fulfilling the consumption needs of the poor on short term, but build resilience through entrepreneurship and building skills.  

The youth can help devise ways to promote start-ups and develop value chains to bolster income generation and creation of jobs.

While it is recommended and spiritually significant not to publicise acts of charity so as to safeguard the dignity of the recipients, technology can be employed to ensure collections are prudently managed and channeled to the deserving cases.

An electronic register of the deserving persons could be periodically updated, and helps create reliability and authenticity by the donor community and the government.