“We Are All Vulnerable Here” Portraits

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Rosemary,  80, runs a soap making business that closed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic but is now starting to pick up. As a beneficiary of the government’s cash transfer program, she received Ksh.1,000 for only a few weeks before it stopped.  She has had to share food and supplies that she can get with neighbors who did not receive any support. Schools have reopened, but she has not managed to take her grandchildren back to school because she can no longer afford it. Mukuru Kayaba, May 26, 2021. © 2021 Human Rights Watch
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Esther Arumba, 40, washes clothes for people in a neighboring suburb. When the pandemic struck, the people she washed clothes for asked her not to come and work, fearing the spread of the virus.  Esther, like many others, did not receive any support from the government’s cash transfer program. Mukuru Kayaba, May 26, 2021. © 2021 Human Rights Watch
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Jane Mbula, 50, a community health volunteer in Mukuru Kayaba settlement, eastern Nairobi, was one of those tasked to enlist eligible households into the government’s cash transfer program in  2020. She says that many of the vulnerable people she had registered did not receive the cash, and even those who received, the amounts were insufficient.  Mukuru Kayaba, May 26, 2021. © 2021 Human Rights Watch
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Naisera Kimani, a youth leader in Kibera settlement, noted a number of irregularities in the government’s cash transfer program.  She raised questions with the local administration but received no answers.  Kibera, May 28, 2021. © 2021 Human Rights Watch
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Wilson lost his job in a factory when the pandemic struck. He stayed home with his family, with no income to buy food or other basic necessities; sometimes he bought each child a banana to take them through the day. When the government cash transfer program began, he first received KES 2000, then received KES 1000. Wilson did not know why the amount changed, or why it ended after a few weeks. He has yet to find a job and continues to struggle to put food on the table for his family. Kibera, May 28, 2021. © 2021 Human Rights Watch
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