Researchers fear the virus will hit the most vulnerable African communities — the pastoralists, particularly those in Kenya, as officials have extended bans on travel in and out of Nairobi until June 1.
Guyo belongs to a semi-nomadic pastoralist community in Isiolo, a county in northern Kenya, where she is responsible for the well-being of six family members.
The economic costs of COVID-19 have already been harsher than the direct impact on these moving communities, Shariff told VOA’s Horn of Africa service.
"The pastoralist economy is based on movements and are usually left out of state," professor Gufu Oba of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, told the Horn of Africa service.
The majority of African pastoralists live in extreme poverty, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights said in a statement to VOA Horn of Africa.
