The Impact of The Covid-19 Pandemic on Educational and Economic Well-Being of The Residents of Bomet County, Kenya

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly infectious respiratory disease with no known cure, has ravaged the world economy, human lives and social activities on an unprecedented scale. Developed and developing nations are grappling with the measures to control the spread and mitigate the adverse impact of the virus. Kenya as one of the developing countries has been affected by the virus and has taken a raft of measures to contain the spread. These measures have had a ripple effect on normal lives of Kenyan citizens. The survey aimed at assessing the impact of the coronavirus disease on education and economic sectors with a view to providing sustainable interventions. The primary data was collected using a questionnaire that was administered to a sample population of 18,326 residents of Bomet County. The data collected, was checked for consistencies, outliers and missing values and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The analysis was facilitated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The distribution of respondents among the sub-counties ranged from 18.58 to 20.57%, male were more (52.86%) than females (47.14%), the youthful (20 – 49 years) were more (72.6%) than the aged (> 50 years) at 21.27% and majority were married (67%). Only 18.56% of the populations were in formal employment and therefore most residents could potentially be economically affected by COVID-19. The education sector was the most severely affected (76.9%). Most of the residents were aware of COVID-19 with radio being the most popular source of information (71.7%). in general, there was a negative impact on educational and economic well-being of the residents of Bomet county. The residents’ educational and economic needs were severely affected by the pandemic and there was need for support from the government by way of reduced taxation among other measures. The findings informed policy formulation and direction on sustainable interventions to mitigate the impact of the pandemic by the County Government of Bomet and other devolved units in Kenya.