The United Nations estimated that Kenya will have approximately 3.5 million severely food insecure people in the months of July and August 2020.
This analysis was detailed in a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday, August 10.
As per the date of its release, approximately 1 million Kenyans were already sleeping hungry.
UN says that Kenyans were largely affected by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
In urban areas, an increase in food prices and a decrease in income or the loss of jobs contributed to food insecurity.
Female-headed households, who constitute 30.2% of the poor population, were stated to be particularly at high risk.
It added that workers in the informal economy may not be able to stay at home when they are sick without paid sick leave.
"People living in or near poverty always lack disposable cash and cannot easily stockpile food in times of pandemics.
"Hunger, malnutrition, pneumonia and other forms of health-related shocks and stresses compound vulnerability to the Covid-19 pandemic," the report states.
It, however, detailed that steps were being set up to avert the situation. Government and partners identified 725,000 urban poor in Covid-19 hotspots, including Nairobi, Kwale, Kilifi, Mombasa and Nakuru to be targeted through government response.
The report comes at a time when the government is set to end its weekly Ksh1,000 relief package to Kenyan households by October 2020. Labour Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui stated that the payments will be terminated in the first week of October.
Over 341,958 households received the stipend since May 2020 to cushion them from the Covid-19 crisis.
A report released by Geopoll titled Financial Impact of COVID also detailed that over 17 million Kenyans were poised to deplete their savings in August 2020.
Asked how long they expected to be able to pay for basic expenses like rent and food, 37% of the Kenyan respondents revealed that they only had enough cash to last them for a maximum of 30 days.
To compound the issue even further, 36% of Kenyans revealed that their main source of money to cover basic expenses would come from loans/credit, with a mere 16% relying on salaries.
