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Kenya neglected its women during the Covid-19 pandemic

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At the time the pandemic was wreaking havoc across the country, 30.7 per cent of these women could not work because their places of work were temporarily closed. [iStockphoto]

As Covid-19 battered their businesses and access to credit that could have cushioned them against a hard fall kept spiralling out of reach, many women in the informal sector in Nairobi refused to give up.

Some 12 per cent of them were forced to take credit from shylocks at exorbitant rates. Odds were stacked against them and societal responsibilities increased in the pandemic's wake, with financial aid not forthcoming - the relief government extended hardly reached these women. To survive, they resorted to making difficult choices to see their families through the period.

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