Kenya

Even before the pandemic, there were inequalities showing that health and ill-health were not equally distributed in the country. History has shown that public health emergencies such as Covid-19 can disproportionately impact communities that are already disadvantaged. Drawing from these existing structural issues documented in the literature and media reports, qualitative interviews were conducted to examine the impacts of Covid-19 mitigation measures on sectors and vulnerable segments of the Kenyan society. We highlighted that insufficient attention paid to existing inequalities and the needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups subjected them to a higher risk of infection and undermined the broader Covid-19 response. We also shed light on the impacts of the pandemic on the health sector and access to health care. We argue that the mitigation measures were inadequate to protect vulnerable groups from harm; therefore, the responses exacerbated their socioeconomic status and health.