Tabitha Mukulu hawks roasted potatoes, fries and samosas in Mathare. It is not by choice as at 75, she should be enjoying a relaxed lifestyle at home with her 37 grandchildren.
After all, the resident of Mathare North informal settlement had successfully raised her nine children. They had done well in school and had jobs.
But the coronavirus came calling in Kenya and took away her children's jobs. Three lost jobs and the rest were sent home on an unpaid leave.
The elderly woman lost her husband in the 2007-08 post-election violence. Had he not died, they would have celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary this year.
Covid-19 has brought untold misery not only to Mukulu but also to hundreds of other elderly and not-so-elderly widows. They are struggling financially and are also stigmatised.
Mukulu's in-laws and society at large treated her badly after her husband's death. They viewed her as unworthy.
“I have no one to help me. I have to make money to feed my grandchildren whose parents no longer have jobs. Despite my age, I cannot sit and watch my family suffer; I have to get them something to eat.”
Mukulu’s narrative is similar to that of 60-year-old Phaustine Nafula. She, too, is a widow. Her husband died over 10 years ago.
Nafula has lived with HIV since 1996 when she gave birth to her last child.
A resident of the Korogocho informal settlement, Nafula survives on food donations brought from school by one of her nine grandchildren.
“My grandchild studies at a Catholic Church-managed primary school which gives children four kilos of maize flour and cooking oil every month. That is what we are surviving on during Covid-19," she says.
Covid-19 took a financial toll on her family after her (school) bag sewing business collapsed immediately the President ordered schools closed in mid-March.
Nafula also gets help from HIV-support groups.
“My husband was the sole bread winner and he left me jobless. I have had to depend on ‘chamas’, widow and HIV support groups for survival. Living with HIV during this pandemic has made everything worse,” she says.
Nafula's HIV status demands that she eats before taking her antiretroviral medication. To ensure that there is food for her and the rest of the family, she does laundry jobs for the well-to-do in Eastleigh.
She is lucky her antiretroviral drugs come cost-free.
When laundry jobs are unavailable, Nafula collects used sacks from Mukuru kwa Njenga informal settlement garbage heaps and washes them before making sleeping mats for sale.
“My daughter lost her job at the Thika Road Mall after Covid-19 hit the country. She worked in a restaurant-cum-wines-and-spirits shop before the business was shut down."
Mother and daughter now wash clothes for the rich who pay them between Sh50 and Sh100. For that kind of pay, they can not afford the fare home - they instead walk to save the money for food and rent.
“Things would be different if my husband were alive,” the widow says.
According to Nafula, most widows living with HIV in these times of Covid-19 are malnourished.
It's double tragedy for them - being widowed and living with HIV as the society is rarely helpful. Some hardly have food at all.
“We cannot take ARVs without food, yet so many of us cannot afford three meals a day. I take a single meal daily yet I should be taking food before taking all the ARV dosages,” Nafula says.
The government, she states, should treat those living with HIV in the slums are vulnerable groups.
“When we seek help from the government, we are asked to write our names but nothing is done yet we hear some people elsewhere receive about Sh4,000 every month,” Nafula says and regrets that widows and those living with HIV have been sidelined in the issuance of the social protection fund.
Last Thursday, Gender Chief Administrative Secretary Rachel Shebesh urged leaders to be on the frontline in the fight against the stigmatisation of widows.
Shebesh, who was presiding over the distribution of donations to widows and women groups, said widows are among those worst hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Widows suffer and are still being stigmatised even during the coronavirus pandemic. I know that most lack masks, sanitiser and food,” she said.
Widows suffer double jeopardy during Covid-19 pandemic, according to the United Nations.
First, they undergo the normal challenges faced by millions of women around the world by virtue of gender, and suffer further from the tribulations of acting involuntarily as the sole breadwinners of their families.
The lack of a male presence or figurehead in their families exposes widows to indignity, stigma and discrimination, particularly in developing countries.
Widows also go through violence, both from their communities and their extended families, as they are easy targets for bullying.
“Many deceased men have left their families in destitution - their partners are disinherited. This practice is prevalent in African countries, where women are usually suspected to have contributed to their husband’s demise,” the UN says.
This includes being disowned or sexually exploited by in-laws in return for security and sustenance.
- mwaniki fm