Hussein Moyo shows a photo of his 13-year-old son, Yasin Moyo, at his home in the Huruma low-income neighborhood of Nairobi, Kenya, on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020. The teenager was one of the early victims of the coronavirus pandemic, not from the virus itself but from a bullet fired as he stood on his family's balcony watching the chaos of police officers chasing people still on the streets. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
They say youth is a protective factor against COVID-19. In KENYA, youth have suffered anyway. From children forced into hard labor and prostitution, to schools closed until 2021, from a child shot dead by police enforcing curfew, to babies born in desperate conditions, the effects of the pandemic in Kenya have fallen hard on the young. Growing economic pressures, and Kenya’s intention to close schools for almost everyone until 2021, has put enormous pressure on children, who were suddenly left to drift by the millions. Some now split rocks in quarries, or have turned to prostitution or theft.
