Investing in Community

Captain Isaac Kyale, Project Officer for Kenya East Territory, shares an update from the Nairobi Investors project which seeks to give those excluded from formal financial services a different way to overcome material poverty.

During the past two years, Kenya has been facing a triple crisis – the COVID-19 pandemic, an ongoing locust infestation and floods. Since the end of December 2019, the country has been facing its worst locust infestation in 70 years, and by mid-May 2020 floods had claimed the lives of 237 people in central and northern Kenya. Restrictions in movement of people and equipment as a result of COVID-19, and a shift of focus by key actors to combat the pandemic, compromised the efforts to address the other crises, particularly the locust outbreak.

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the socio-economic and health dimensions of many societies across the world. For those in urban informal settlements, direct and indirect negative impacts of the pandemic and the resulting government policies have had devastating consequences on their livelihood. As the virus continues to spread rapidly, the more popular measures, such as curfews, lockdown and working from home, have overlooked the fate of those living in informal settlements (known locally as slums) who are left to choose between life and livelihood.

We noted that a combination of systematic marginalisation, poor policies and inadequate planning has left millions of people in Nairobi vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. To control the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce implemented initial prevention and mitigation measures. These included encouraging the public to wash their hands, wear face masks and stay home. But not everyone was able to adhere to these measures because people living in the slums rely on a daily wage and cannot afford to stay home. Many of them live in Nairobi’s low-income settlements which are overcrowded and where sanitation and social-distancing measures are near impossible to maintain.

However, as the virus continues to spread rapidly and the emerging socio-economic challenges threaten the Government’s capacity to respond to the crisis, support from other stakeholders such as The Salvation Army may have a positive impact especially in economic recovery.

Globally, 2.5 billion people (mostly women and young people) are excluded from accessing formal financial services – a key challenge that is keenly felt by people in the slums of Kenya’s capital city. The Salvation Army corps (churches) and centres based within the informal settlements of Nairobi have therefore worked closely with their community members to facilitate the establishment of savings and loans groups. In this way, people can work together to generate income and gradually break out of the cycle of material poverty in which they are ensnared. The project is now in its third phase and, over the years, has seen hundreds of people join groups and improve their livelihoods. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, many group members have started businesses or strengthened their small enterprises.

Zioni is one of the people who has recently joined a savings group. He lives in the Mukuru kwa Ruben slum in Nairobi. He is happily married and has three children. Due to the high cost of living in Nairobi, the children live with Zioni’s parents in a rural area outside of the city where they attend school. In the slum, Zioni and his wife share a tiny one-room house made of corrugated iron sheets. Inside is a small bed, a single chair, a handful clothes and shoes and a few kitchen items.

They work hard every day to make ends meet as casual labourers, Zioni on construction sites whilst his wife works in a hotel. Whilst half of her daily income is spent on the fare to and from work, she contributes the remaining income towards the household budget. With Zioni’s small earning, he aspires to save little by little as part of the savings group to raise enough capital to start a small business.

In a setting where individual success is lauded and an ‘every man for himself’ attitude can thrive, this project is bringing together and uniting people from different tribes and backgrounds. This unity will help to build relationships and is especially important as divisive public matters such as the proposed 2021 referendum and the 2022 general elections could so easily cause instability.

Ownership of the groups amongst members is important. They are encouraged to choose their own group names with which they are then registered as self-help groups with the Government. This process of joint decision making and ownership has further strengthened the bonds within the groups and is evident in the times when, for instance, a group member is in a crisis and all their fellow group members will visit them.

During this latest phase 10 new groups have formed in addition to the existing 30 groups. All groups have been registered with the Government and have opened bank accounts, thus guaranteeing the safety of their money. The groups’ savings have increased little by little, month after month, and though restrictions and lockdowns have hindered income-generation activities, many groups have used the opportunity to produce and sell masks, liquid soap and detergents which have boosted their savings.

We are thankful that this project continues to build community as well as help more people to gradually work their way out of material poverty.