Hand washing stations at Kibera slum in Nairobi. Credit: Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP Getty
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The slum of Mathare, in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, is a difficult place to live at the best of times. It is a warren of tin-roofed shacks wedged into a valley between a highway and a bleak, sewage-filled creek. Most of its residents live on at most a few dollars a day, working in backbreaking informal jobs.
Electricity is provided by criminal cartels who rig up dangerous connections to the grid. Cooking is done on charcoal fires which poison people’s lungs. People get water from shared standpipes or the river; cholera outbreaks are common. During election periods, anger often boils over into protests.
And with Covid-19 reported in Nairobi, things are looking particularly bleak for the people of Mathare. According to Fred Njoroge, a resident who runs a slum cinema, “the community has come together… People are taking precautions”. But it is not easy. “I am not staying in the house because I have to go find something to eat, people here, they cannot just stay in the house”.
He and his neighbours are taking turns to fetch buckets so that people can wash their hands. But even finding water takes time and effort. “We share the same toilets, all of us”, he says.
On Friday night, a curfew was imposed across Kenya, including in the slums of Nairobi. It was chaotic, with police beating up offenders, some of whom simply hadn’t made it home in time because of the punishing traffic. “They are telling us to choose between hunger or Covid 19”, says Njoroge.
The coronavirus has turned life upside down in rich countries like nothing else in most people’s lifetimes. Millions may die, and even if the measures our governments have taken succeed in preventing that, the hit to our economies will last much longer than the lockdowns. But though this challenge may seem incalculable from our comfortable living rooms, the one facing poorer countries is likely to be much more severe.
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SubscribePertinent to read in light of the current global situation, thanks.