For Sarah Owano, the Covid-19 pandemic is more than just the new normal. She calls the infectious virus a new abnormal.
Last year, Sarah went for about four months without a job. She was weighed down by the difficulties of life as several job applications yielded nothing.
In November, she landed a job as a teacher in a private school in Embakasi. That meant moving from Kakamega to Nairobi.
Four months into the job, Covid-19 struck in Kenya, leading to closure of schools. Her short period of sunrise moved fast to sunset.
"I call it a new abnormal because I am jobless again. But this time, the little I had is now locked up in the city over rent arrears," she says.
Sarah is just one of the many Kenyans facing economic difficulties triggered by the virus.
The first Covid-19 case in Kenya was reported on March 13, 2020. Some 170 days later, there are about 34,700 infections and 585 deaths. But the impact goes beyond these statistics.
Dark clouds are fast gathering over bread winners as the virus stalks the land, forcing the government to delay the full reopening of the economy.
Freeze expansion plans
Companies have had to scale down their activities, freeze expansion plans and announce job cuts and salary reductions to survive a pandemic period that has hurt revenues.
For Kenyans working outside the country, the situation is even worse. Some have come back.Beldene Inzieu, who first opened up in May about her experience of losing a job in a foreign country, says the situation is not getting any better.This is her fifth month on unpaid leave in Dubai and she has now turned to temporary jobs to keep going."Like everybody else, I thought it wasn’t going to last for more than a month," she says.Back home, bars remain shut, hotels and restaurants are recording few customers and private schools and many other businesses have no idea when they will require services of employees like Sarah and Beldene.Kenya Private Schools Association chief executive Peter Ndoro says more than 146 private schools have shut down completely and that means permanent job losses.He reckons that the abrupt closure of schools triggered tough decisions, given that school fees from parents is the key source of revenue.Unlike public schools, private ones are not entitled to any government capitation."The conversations we have been having with our staff members is that due to the inability of schools to raise […]
