I live in the Shompole region of Kenya, a rural area west of Nairobi.  Like most people in the area, I am Maasai. The Maasai are a people who are indigenous to the region and traditionally work as animal herders and ranchers. Many of us still preserve parts of this traditional way of life including making our livelihood by buying, selling, and trading our livestock. In fact, our livestock and the markets where we sell them is like a bank for us Maasai of Shompole because we don't have brick and mortar banks near by! But during the COVID19 pandemic we are unable to access our livestock "bank" and so we must ask the real bank for some relief. Kenya USA Diaspora SACCO please defer our loan payments during the worse time in the COVID19 pandemic!

Like everyone else in the world, we have been effected in so many ways by the COVID19 pandemic. We fear getting sick with the disease and worry about all the death and illness it has caused all over our country and our world. Like other countries in the world, Kenya has taken the needed steps to slow down the virus such as shutting down our livestock markets, closing national boarders and locking down the major cities such as Nairobi. We are very grateful that these actions have flattened the curve here in Shompole but the economic impact has been devastating to us.

The closure of the livestock markets due to the COVID19 pandemic has caused nearly 6,000 people in Shompole to lose all, or most of their income.  While some may have savings to get through this hard time, many others have debt and without our normal income streams operational, these folks are unable to make payments on their debt. Sadly, Kenya Diaspora SACCO, the bank that owns the debt of many people here, refuses to offer any relief. We have asked that they suspend debt collections until the livestock markets reopen and add the skipped payments to the end of the loan but they will not even communicate with us about this matter.  They just continue to ask for the normal payments as though nothing is different.  

Kenya is a great nation and Shompole is a beautiful region rich with animal life and culture but we are a poor region in a developing nation.  We do not get a free public education and there is very little free medical care too.  Many in Shompole enjoy the traditional way and want to keep a part of that alive forever, but we also want to send our kids to school, have a variety of nutritious foods and see a doctor when we are sick. To make education possible for our kids and get complex medical care when needed, we sometimes need to take out loans. These loans allow us to both keep our traditional ways but also acknowledge that we live in a modern world.  Like people everywhere, we took out these loans not thinking something as terrible as COVID19 would happen.  We can pay on the loans when we have regular income like we are used to and will continue to make good on our debt when the livestock markets reopen but until that time we desperately need Kenya Diaspora SACCO to work with our community.  

We are only asking Kenya Diaspora SACCO to follow the advice from the World Bank and defer our loan payments until the worst of the crisis is over. We simply ask that these deferred payments be added to the end of the loan.  The World Bank, other governments and economists everywhere say this is the best way for the economy of the whole world to bounce back quickly from this crisis. I'm not an economist but I know that if the people here in Shompole get this relief from Kenya Diaspora SACCO it will help us to get back on our feet quickly from the economic hardship everyone is facing. 

Kenya Diaspora SACCO please suspend debt collections and add the skipped payments to the end of the loans for all your costumers in Shompole!