NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 30 – A new survey by TIFA research on Coronavirus has revealed that 69 per cent of Kenyans have reduced income, while 43 per cent have lost it completely.
In the research conducted from a sample size of 579 respondents, 61 per cent of Kenyans who reported reduced earnings due to the pandemic have slashed their expenditure on food and drinks than any other type of purchases or payments.
The respondents further reported a sharp decrease in the spending on rent, clothing, entertainment and transportation.
42 per cent expressed fears that hunger is the expected future challenge if the crisis persists.
“Among all respondents, more than four-fifths say that the Covid-19 crisis has had a great impact on their daily lives. This is true across all employment-status categories, except for those now jobless and who never been employed, of whom three-fourths expressed this view, nevertheless,” the firm’s Research Analyst Tom Wolf said in the report released Tuesday.
The respondents who had been earning prior to the health crisis, almost all at 96 per cent reported that they are now earning either “very little” or “nothing” of what they had been been getting before March when the outbreak was reported in Kenya.
Kenya had recorded 6,190 positive cases by June 29, with the peak projected at August or September.
Repayment of loans to banks and other lending institutions is a lesser concern to Kenyans, with majority opting to default or enter into arrangements with their respective lenders to utilize the resources available in meeting the basic needs.
The dusk-to-dawn curfew that is currently enforced in the country and the inter-county restriction of movement in -Nairobi, Mombasa and Mandera were cited in the report to have immensely contributed in the deteriorating economic situation.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is next week expected to issue further directions on the country’s containment measures following the expiry of the curfew and the cessation of movement in the three regions.
“While these impacts have affected most households across the country, they appear to be more profound and longer-lasting amongst low income-earners in more congested urban areas who are inherently more vulnerable,” Wolf said.
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