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Brian Otieno

Eighteen-year-old Stephen Onyango (centre) teaches his brothers Collins and Gavan while their sister Genevieve Akinyi watches at their home in Kibera. They hadn't been to class since the Kenyan government closed all schools in the country in mid-March to curb the spread of COVID-19. Stephen told photographer Brian Otieno that his teacher suggested an app he could use to teach his siblings. “It's my responsibility to ensure that my brothers are at home studying now that coronavirus is here with us and we don't know when this will end,” he said. Kenya reopened schools in January 2021, even as the pandemic continued to spread.

Girls form a socially distant queue to take a shower at a facility in Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Most residents in the community do not have access to indoor plumbing, so a local organisation provided free water to help prevent the spread of coronavirus by helping people maintain their personal hygiene.

Ruth Kavana, a single mother of four, looks at herself in the mirror inside her home in the informal settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. When the coronavirus emerged in Kenya, she closed her business selling eggs, potato chips, and smokies, a popular sausage snack, for a month.