NAIROBI, June 18 (Xinhua) -- For years, Monica Apondi has traveled every week across counties in western Kenya selling hand-made clothes for children and women in open-air markets.
But when she woke up on Friday, Apondi, a resident of Kakamega, western Kenya, had no place to take her products for sale.
This followed the government's imposition of stringent measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 in western Kenya.
The region has experienced a faster spread of the disease, with the surge blamed on the Indian strain of the virus detected in the area.
Among the measures the government imposed starting Friday were a dusk-to-dawn curfew that begins from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. and the closure of all open-air markets for 30 days.
Thousands of small traders like Apondi who depend on the markets for sale have thus had their sources of livelihoods cut off.
Other small businesspersons that are feeling the pinch are motorbike taxi riders, livestock sellers, tents and chairs service providers who cash in on funerals, passenger service vehicle operators and hawkers.
"I get sales of up to 3,000 shillings (29 U.S. dollars) daily from the markets. But these are now gone for at least the next 30 days," said Apondi in a phone interview.
This is the first time such stringent measures have been imposed in the region since the outbreak of the disease in Kenya in March 2020, throwing residents into a spin.
Since the onset of the disease in the east African nation, COVID-19 had remained a problem of big cities and towns closer to Nairobi. But the disease over the last month has spread to western Kenya faster, shifting the epicenter as it exerts a toll on people who had largely not followed containment measures like wearing face masks.
"Now I cannot work until 9 p.m. as I used to. I will have to adjust and lose at least 5 dollars' income, as this is the time most people use our services," said George Amboka, a motorbike rider in Kakamega county.
Motorbike transport in the region, as in others across Kenya, employs thousands of youths who earn at least 5 dollars daily from the service.
Some offices like those of advocates and shops have also scaled down their operations, sending workers on unpaid leave. Many people have also limited traveling from one region to another to curb the spread of the disease, thus affecting operators of commuter bus services.
On Friday, Nairobi topped in COVID-19 infections with 174 cases, followed by Western counties of Siaya at 138 and Kisumu at 92 out of the 796 cases announced from a sample of 7,392. Fatalities stood at 3,437 and the total caseload rose to 178,078. Enditem
