A glimpse into the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in rural Kenya

In rural Kenya, the pandemic has posed serious problems whose impacts are ongoing, particularly for women. I recently spoke with Esther (a pseudonym), a small-scale farmer in Nyandarua County northwest of Nairobi about her experiences. Esther grows vegetables and potatoes on a quarter of an acre farm and sells the produce at a nearby market, five kilometers from her homestead. “I am 42, I have three children, three boys, and I live with my husband,” Esther said. “In 2020 and 2021, I had problems buying inputs and selling my crops due to lockdowns, transportation problems, and other issues. My husband’s small business was affected by COVID-19 too, as he could not capture the profits like before. It was a period of hardship; I lost income and we had to eat whatever we could find on our farm; at times we could only eat one meal in a day.”