Socioeconomic Impacts of Covid-19: the Rural-urban Disparities in Kenya

Abstract

The world has been severely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to the loss of lives and resulted in unquantifiable harm on livelihoods and wellbeing. Using quantitative research design, we analyzed high-frequency longitudinal phone survey data from the World Bank and her partners to investigate if the socioeconomic effects of the pandemic are different among rural and urban households in Kenya. Generally, we find that location does not significantly influence the severity of COVID-19 effects in the short run. However, it is indeed vulnerable groups such as the poor, marginalized and those that do not possess any education and the unemployed that are severely affected no matter where these groups are located. This agrees with Lakner et al. (2020) who describe the heterogeneity of COVID-19 effects and provide evidence that the most affected people were those who have no education or possess low levels of education, those who own fewer assets or are less wealthy and those in the informal sector. Thus, the pandemic disproportionately affected vulnerable groups such the informal sector, women, youth, people with disabilities among others more than the less vulnerable groups and this is expected to increase the gap between the poor and the rich heightening inequalities (Bundervoet, Dávalos, & Garcia 2022). However, we find that COVID-19 effects were severe for large households, and for those who adopted any form of preventive measures i.e., stayed home, wore masks, practiced social distancing etc. On the contrary, those who practiced farming activities were less likely to lack food. We recommend that government intervention and recovery policies should target vulnerable groups no matter where they are located. The government should also impose less or no restrictions but instead create awareness and create demand for vaccination as a way of prevention from contracting the pandemic. The government should also enhance and support growth of the agricultural sector and create awareness towards responsible birth control.