Effect of Covid-19 stringent containment measures on household incomes in uasin Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

Pandemics are not a new occurrence, as they have transpired many times over the course of human history. However, the measures implemented by governments globally to halt the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to restricted mobility of people and goods, which impacted business operations in Kenya. While COVID-19 containment efforts helped reduce coronavirus cases worldwide, household incomes were jeopardized due to the pandemic's effects on commercial activities. The study sought to analyze effect of COVID-19 stringent containment measures on household incomes in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to evaluate the effect of stay at home requirement, workplace, and mobility restrictions on household incomes for the periods that the government gave the stringent containment measures. This study was grounded in the permanent income theory, life-cycle hypothesis, and relative income theory, which informed the specification framework. An explanatory research design was utilized, drawing on a population of 304,943 households and a sample of 399. Data was gathered via structured questionnaires administered to household heads using simple random sampling. Cronbach Alpha coefficients of household incomes, stay at home requirement, workplace restrictions and mobility restrictions were 0.895, 0.863, 0.823, and 0.722 respectively. The results were accepted as they were above the threshold of 0.7. Correlation results indicated a strong negative significant correlation between stay-at-home requirement and household income (r = - 0.570, p  0.00  0.05) . Workplace restrictions and household income had a negative and significant correlation (r = - 0.539, p  0.00  0.05) and mobility restrictions and household income had a weak positive significant correlation (r = 0.130, p  0.009  0.05) . From the model estimation, ADJ.R 2 = 0.431 , F - statistic = 101.537 with a significant probability 0 . 00  0 . 05 indicated that the model used was robust and the explanatory variables fit the study. OLS results indicated that stay-at-home requirement coefficient had a negative significant effect (β = −0.343, p = 0.00 < 0.05); workplace restriction coefficient had a negative and significant effect (β = −0.366, p = 0.00 < 0.05 ) on household income. The results implied that a unit increase in stay at home requirement coefficient and unit increase in workplace restrictions coefficient resulted in a reduction of 0.343 units and 0.366 units in household incomes respectivelyThe study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted household incomes in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya, indicating that the restrictions put in place to contain the outbreak extensively resulted in job losses and income reduction. The study recommends revising the COVID-19 restrictions and regulations to allow people and businesses to operate within the stipulated requirement hence promoting household incomes.