· Kenya is hit by three challenges back to back – Coronavirus, floods and food shortage due to locust invasion
· The government has to reorganise budget to address the virus, floods and locust threat.
Kenya is hit by three challenges back to back – Coronavirus, floods and food shortage due to locust invasion. With its limited resources, the Kenyan Government is trying to do a balancing act. The government has to reorganise budget to address the virus, floods and locust threat.
Prior to the three crises, Kenya was trying to consolidate fiscal measures to reduce the budget gap and reduce debt. But all its efforts were thrown off the balance with the onslaught of the Pandemic. To fight COVID 19, the government has implemented social distancing measures in addition to the economic stimulus package that has lowered valued added tax (VAT) from 16 percent to 14 percent, exempted income below Sh24,000 from pay and lowered corporate tax from 30 percent to 25 percent. These measures will reportedly cost the country a Sh172 billion revenue loss.
The economic distress is aggravated with many firms announcing job cuts, unpaid leaves and hiring freeze in the wake of disrupted business activity. Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge, recently expressed his apprehensions about the consequences of the job losses in Kenya as well as the US. – “is it a regular wave we can ride through or it is a tsunami,” he said in a tweet late March.
To complicate things, Kenya is entering its rainy season. The floods have already caused huge damage to houses, livestock and crops and caused death. All the seven fork dams — Masinga, Kamburu, Kitaru, Kindaruma and Kiambere — are now at the optimum level of water, the government recently warned. The flood situation can weaken the social distancing norms, by crowding people into camps.
The invasion of desert locusts at the beginning of the year have threatened major crops. By May, Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned Kenya to brace up for a second wave of desert locusts, 20 times bigger than the first one. This could hit the country’s food basket at a time when the country is already facing an acute shortage of maize.
