Coronavirus bug will bind us together in ways never seen

The economic impact of Covid-19 is beginning to worsen. Given our gross inequalities, some have taken comfort in the argument that it will affect those “over there”.

They couldn’t be more wrong. The little bug is about to bind us together in ways not seen in decades. There is nothing like a unequivocal presidential statement to chill a country. At least five million people, many of them youth, will have lost their jobs by the time we declare victory over Covid-19.

Our economy is contracting daily. With trade, tourism and agriculture taking the biggest hit, we can expect significant drops in domestic revenue as well as dips in remittances. While the cost of basic commodities has started to increase, food and other essential commodities prices will spiral out of control.

Jobs, food and housing are critical considerations in whether to extend or lift the partial lockdown strategies and ease restrictions this week. Experts have argued that the best way to control the health impact of the pandemic would be to lock down and test as many people as possible. However, without significant social protection and support, the political, social and economic impact would be predictably disastrous.

Over the last few weeks, Africa Voices, Radio Jambo and Ghetto Radio have interviewed 6,500 men and women across the country. Securing food, jobs and housing top the concerns of those living in urban informal settlements, followed by testing and being quarantined and the lockdown.

Interestingly, men’s concerns have been marginally focused more on the lockdown, masks and being quarantined. These concerns are very different among the middle and upper classes.

Driving through a middle-class green suburb I know well, I noticed a sharp increase in the number of women sitting on stones along its residential avenues last week. After a quick conversation, I discovered their greatest fears was not contracting Covid-19, but hunger and being arrested for sitting on the roadside.

It has been two months since they got any form of employment. Seventeen of them had been recently arrested and held overnight on the instigation of residents worried about the growing numbers. Domestic work is one of the oldest services in the world. It has roots in slavery, colonialism and all societies with high levels of inequality. They represent up to 10 per cent of the total workforce in developing countries.

They are predominantly women and have low levels of formal education and training. The ones I found on the side of the road are also daily casuals, recruited, paid and then dismissed daily. We call them dhobi women or akina ‘mama fua’. They are essential for keeping homes and compounds clean, but so casual that most of them don’t even know the names of their employers. They often refer to their employers as “Mama Njoki or Mama Omondi”.

Despite the efforts of the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) and the Government, most still earn far less than the minimum monthly, daily and hourly rates of Sh13,000, 630 and 116 respectively. Corona has turned their precarious livelihood on its head. Most families have released their house-helps for fear of cross-infection and even more are no longer willing to bring daily casuals into their homes.

This category will not be covered by the national government social protection programme or the cash transfer programme. As they drift back to the suburbs looking for work or food hand-outs, they are increasingly being criminalised. Ironically, so too, are the community philanthropists that are willing to help out. In order to uphold physical distancing guidelines, law enforcement agencies have been given the impossible task of arresting both those seeking food and those willing to donate it.

We have to think again beyond the walls between our diverse communities. These walls are neither tall nor strong enough to withstand the tension caused by huge differences in privilege, comfort and safety.

The middle class must rise above its own direct interest and develop structured programmes that target the hidden communities who run key services in their neighborhood. They cannot police our way through this.

There is simply, just not enough police and more importantly, too much distress and misery at this time to look away.

- The writer is Amnesty International Executive Director. He writes in his personal capacity. [email protected]