The cashless money transfer is the heaviest blow Covid-19 has inflicted on urchins and street families.
The coronavirus has robbed them of a livelihood. Even those who supplement begging with menial jobs like carrying goods for a fee are not spared.
Street people survive on the coins and occasional currency notes they get from well-wishers, who however, hardly carry cash these days, preferring to pay for goods and services through M-Pesa and credit/debit cards.
“We depend on loose change from well-wishers who, despite their shrinking number, no longer carry cash,” 14-year-old Joe told the Star.
To the street people, hunger is a worse enemy than the coronavirus. The situation was made worse by government directives to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19.
“Directives such as the closure of hotels, people staying at home, night curfews and shutting down of many non-essential businesses have greatly affected us,” says Joe, who prefers begging from Uhuru Park.
According to him, “mobile cash transfers are helpful to all but street families who not have bank accounts or phones”.
The teenager, who sleeps on a makeshift bed of card boxes under a staircase of the dias in Uhuru Park, laments that the virus has made things difficult for him and his street colleagues.
“Well-wishers now say they do not have cash. Some want to send money through mobile phones yet most of us do not have phones.”
Boss, Joe’s friend, blames their hunger and dismay on the closure of eateries and people working from home.
“We are supposed to be wearing masks and keep social distance but our greatest challenge is social distance because we have to sleep together to generate heat and keep away night cold,” Boss says.
They boys say their hope is God. They believe He will protect them.
Joe and Boss have heard that the government had rolled out a Covid-19 emergency response fund to cushion the poor and destitutes from the effects of the pandemic, but they feel left out.
“We street people are the neediest as most of us ran away from our homes because of poverty, neglect and child abuse,” Joe says.
A 2018 national census of street families showed that Kenya has 46,639 such families with seven out of 10 street dwellers being males.
The street people commended the police for not assaulting them during the night curfew. The officers often offer them food and face masks.