Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2022, 10, 317-326
https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss
ISSN Online: 2327-5960
ISSN Print: 2327-5952
DOI: 10.4236/jss.2022.104023 Apr. 22, 2022 317 Open Journal of Social Sciences
Economic Challenges Compromising Resilience
to the War against COVID-19 among Border
Communities in Busia County, Kenya
Lydiah Wamocha
1
, Joseph Nasongo
2
, Juddy Achoka
1
, Knight Tundo
3
, Pamela Buhere
1
,
Angeline Savala
4
1
Department of Educational Planning and Management, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya
2
Department of Educational Foundations, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya
3
Department of Curriculum and Instructional Technology, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya
4
Department of Social Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kakamega, Kenya
Abstract
By March 2020, the pandemic had spread to both developed and third world
countries. These countries reported multiple cases of the virus within their
borders, and deaths related to the virus. This study sought to establish the
economic challenges that compromise the war against COVID-19 among bor-
der communities in Busia County. The study was conducted in the two major
border points comprising Busia and Malaba towns. In Busia town, the study
was carried out in the entire Matayos and Nambale sub counties, while in
Malaba town the study was conducted in Teso South and Teso North Sub
Counties. The respondents included motor bike riders and small scale traders
in the identified Sub Counties. Stratified and simple random sampling me-
thods were used to select a representative sample of the population with the
aid of lists of registered members of the motor bike riders and small scale
traders. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Question-
naires and interview guide were used to collect data from the respondents. In
the analysis done, the respondents to the questionnaires included the small
scale traders and motor bike riders. It was established that the poverty levels
had risen even higher than usual and a number of them could not make ends
meet. Daily income for small scale traders had reduced drastically and some
had closed part of their business due to lack of customers. This is because of
government stringent measures, such as: curfews ban on cross-border trade
and social distancing which affected business activities. The small scale trad-
ers did not receive any support from the government or well-wishers to re-
vamp their business.
How to cite this paper: Wamocha, L., Na-
songo, J., Achoka, J., Tundo, K., Buhere, P., &
Savala, A. (2022). Economic Challenges Com-
promising Resilience to the War against
COVID-19 among Border Communities in
Busia County, Kenya. Open Journal of Social
Sciences, 10, 317-326.
https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.104023
Received: January 25, 2022
Accepted: April 19, 2022
Published: April 22, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access