Challenges Posed By the Outbreak of COVID-19 and the Need for a Presidential Directive to Protect the Poor from the Whims of Unscrupulous and Inhuman Landlords

Abstract

This paper was written when the COVID-19 pandemic had just started spreading in Africa, and specifically Kenya. The paper took into account the fact that Kenya is a third world country, where many people live from hand to mouth. It also factored in the reality that many Kenyans are engaged in the informal sector which was struck so hard by the pandemic. The paper acknowledged that those effects negatively impacted on the ability of many Kenyan to pay their rents and meet other basic needs at the same time. Many Kenyans, therefore, faced eviction, from their residents as they had to strike a delicate balance between rent and food.

This paper sought to encourage the President of the Republic of Kenya to issue an Executive Order that would have seen the landlords and tenants (who could not afford rent during the pandemic) enter agreements to pay rent after the pandemic. Additionally, the paper required such Order to also trigger agreement between real estate investors and mortgagors to suspend the payment of mortgage for debtors who could not afford the same during the pandemic. These arrangements were meant to ease the satiations of many Kenyan who were deprived of socio-economic rights under Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.

Keywords: COVID-19, Executive Order, Human rights, Landlords, Loans, Mortgagors, Pandemic, Rent, Socio-economic rights