Covid-19 in Kenya: Global Health, Human Rights and the State in a Time of Pandemic.

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Measures taken to stop the spread of the coronavirus have had considerable implications for the welfare and human rights and of vulnerable communities in Kenya. A nationwide curfew, the closing of public markets, restrictions on the ability to earn a livelihood have led to a deterioration of the diets and nutritional status of many citizens. Government and philanthropic initiatives to make up the deficit have been insufficient. Litigation and civil society campaigning has focussed on these social effects, and on the extensive violation of human rights represented by the measures themselves and their implementation by state forces. Parliament and the constitutionally mandated bodies, including the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission and the Committee on the Administration of Justice, have begun to scrutinize these policies and their effects. This is an evolving situation which will test the ability of Kenyan state institutions to manage a severe health crisis in a manner which attends to the needs and rights of marginalized and impoverished communities. It will also illustrate the resilience of these communities themselves, as well as their capacity to define their own interests and to challenge state and other agencies which neglect or violate them.

This paper presents initial findings form an AHRC-funded project documenting and evaluating the legal and policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya, a collaboration of Cardiff Law and Global Justice with the African Population and Health Research Center and the Katiba Constitution Institute, Nairobi. It considers evidence from interviews and a desk-based survey in relation to two key questions:

Does the Kenyan response to COVID-19 reinforce or impede the trajectory of the state from authoritarianism to democracy, and from inequality to social reform?  

 Are human rights law guarantees effective in guiding and limiting the exercise of coercive public health powers in pandemic situations?