The woman who refuses to be defeated by the virus

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Josephine Muchilwa was working as a cook, but like many others in Kenya and around the world, she lost her job. Over the past year, BBC World Service Business Daily presenter Ed Butler has heard how she’s done.

“I have no job, I have no life, I have no food for my children.”

The harsh reality contained in Josephine’s description of the impact of the coronavirus containment measures imposed a year ago has struck home.

Just days after the government announced strict curfews to limit the spread of Covid-19, this single mother, living in the overcrowded Nairobi neighborhood of Kibera, exposed the fate so many people were suddenly facing confronted.

His low-paid job in the kitchen of a local school came when the students were invited to study at home. She wondered how she was going to feed her family of four children.

“I’m just negotiating with God,” the 31-year-old told Business Daily. “I do not know what to do.”

But after hearing about his plight, a few generous listeners stepped in with a donation.

It wasn’t a huge amount – around $ 150 (£ 110) – but it was enough to get Josephine to start a fruit and veg business.

While traveling by bus to a large wholesale market in the center of Kenya’s capital, she bought 25kg bags of onions, tomatoes and more, taking them back to Kibera where she started renting a small kiosk in wood.

Josephine then began sending regular audio logs from her mud-walled cabin to a room about her efforts to run the business.

It was happening just as Kibera, which is a giant informal settlement in the heart of Nairobi, was in crisis.

Since most Kiberians work as housekeepers, housekeepers or drivers, they have been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn as their wealthier employees have asked them to stay away for fear of bring infection.

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‘Children can eat’

Nevertheless, at first, apparently against all odds, Josephine seemed to make it work. She had eight, maybe 10 clients a day.

“At least today I received a profit of 170 shillings ($ 1.50),” she told me in a conversation last May. “The children are fine, they are happy, at least they are eating.”

But she was still fighting the odds.

Josephine had no experience as a businesswoman, the area was under curfew, there were regular and violent police raids on anyone caught unawares after the restrictions came into effect and travel outside. city ​​limits were totally off limits.

In addition, she had her four children in mind, and crime and fear of sexual violence was growing in the slum.

“Rape cases are on the increase,” she said. “If I leave the kids alone, anyone can come in and do anything to them.”

Also, few people now had an income to pay for what she was selling. Her neighbors like her were unemployed and lived off their savings.

Then disaster really hit. Josephine contracted malaria and had to borrow money for treatment from a local lender.

Increases in private debt like this seem to be prevalent in informal settlements. A local pawnbroker called Rodgers told the BBC that he had no more money to lend, such was the demand for his services.

Many were unable to repay the loans, he said, so he sold the household items they provided as collateral.

For her part, Josephine had nothing to exchange.

Crashed kiosk

To this day, she fears that her outstanding loans, amounting to around $ 30, could cause her serious problems.

The prospect of repaying his loans became increasingly remote when in June last year, government bulldozers roamed the part of Kibera where his food kiosk was located.

They were giving way to new railway development, they said.

The government said the owners had received numerous warnings. But as a tenant, Josephine said she had no idea.

Adding to the tragedy, she had just put in a large amount of stock, which was crushed with the wooden structure. Once again, she was broke and her dream of becoming a businesswoman was over.

“That day, I really cried – almost three days. I feel so painful. I couldn’t even eat. And when I look at my situation now, it’s become so difficult.”

The pandemic itself has hit millions of people in Kenya and beyond in this way, it seems.

Officially, there have been around 2,100 deaths from Covid in Kenya, although some experts believe the actual figure could be much higher than that.

But for the residents of Kibera, there is a sense that their communities have been disproportionately hit by the government’s anti-Covid restrictions, and that police action to enforce the rules has often been violent and authoritarian.

“These people who live [on] for less than $ 2 a day, they know if you get sick you’re going to die, ”says Kennedy Odede, a Kibera-born activist and founder of local charity Shining Hope.

“We want the government to make sure the slums are their priority, to make sure we have roads, good health care and clean water.”

But the government is not about to lift the restrictions. Last month, the nationwide nighttime curfew was extended amid alarming evidence of a third wave of Covid infections.

A year after the first epidemic of the disease, Joséphine continues to struggle.

She still has no regular source of income and her children have to live on just one bowl of porridge a day.

“One day I dream of being a doctor,” her eldest daughter, Shamim, 11, told me. “Today, I dream of food.”

Josephine has managed to find occasional cleaning jobs, but a woman, she told me, has not yet paid her for three days of work.

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But thanks to the Shining Hope association, a new chapter in his life could begin soon.

She is re-establishing herself as a seamstress, in order to get piecework which, according to experienced colleagues, can earn them several dollars a day.

Even though the lessons of the past 12 months have been extremely hard, Josephine stubbornly hopes that she and the children will come out stronger from what they have suffered.