Page 120 - IJPS-10-1

International Journal of
Population Studies Migration and mobility data in COVID-19 response

internal migration data from the 2019 Kenya census dataset COVID-19 among residents in five slum areas in Nairobi
and the demographic profile of the confirmed COVID- were assessed in joint collaboration with the Ministry of
19 cases in China to forecast the spread of COVID-19 to Health and Population Council, with results showing that
Kenya. One notable observation from Kenya is that the the residents of informal settlements were still moving in
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Kenya advised the search of jobs despite the lockdown measures, with up
National Emergency Response Committee to decentralize to 19% of respondents reporting that they used public
to response efforts to the hotspot areas based on patterns transport to go to work (Austrian et al., 2020).
of population movements and COVID cases reported in As part of the AU monitoring structures for the
the country . continental response to COVID-19, the PERC conducted
2
The third common source for obtaining migration data online surveys to gather public opinion on the public health
is the surveys, including specialist migration surveys that measures and their effects on livelihood. In September
collect information regarding migrants and their livelihoods. 2021, PERC monitored mobility trends in several African
The merits and demerits of using survey data have been countries, including the EAC region, and found that several
well documented; of note, the application of survey data countries still had higher population mobility in spite of
faces several limitations, such as the low generalizability the rising cases of COVID-19 delta variant infection in
of the results due to small sample size and the high cost the region (Africa CDC, 2021b). In Kenya, Ruktanonchai
of conducting surveys. However, due to the time lag of et al. (2021) used the Google Mobility dataset to map
census data and the lack of updated population registers in the human mobility patterns in the 2018–2019 period in
contexts like Africa, the specialist migration surveys are the Kenya, to illustrate the levels of domestic and international
preferred option for more timely data (Fargues et al., 2021; travel in the pre-pandemic period, and establish what
Muyonga et al., 2020). For the EAC region, only Tanzania factors influenced such movements. Results showed there
has used the World Bank’s Living Standards Survey, which were two peak seasons for human mobility in Kenya,
incorporates a module on migration (Muyonga et al., 2020). that is, in August and December, mirroring the school
In the review of literature, there is no evidence on the use calendar, with the pre-pandemic period characterized by
of specialist surveys to capture information on migrants, or short trips within the country and longer intercounty and
migration and mobility in the region, but evidence points to international trips. In Kenya, a mobile survey revealed
use of innovative methods to collect such data, as discussed that a spike in COVID-19 infections was attributed to
in the next section. non-adherence by some of the citizens to movement
restriction protocols imposed by the government (Quaife
3.3. Innovative sources of migration and mobility et al., 2020). The Google Mobility data, however, have
data for COVID-19 response in EAC limitations as it only captures information from mobile

In the absence of administrative data, the use of mobility phones and, therefore, omits population that does not own
data based on cellphone user location data proved to be phones. Moreover, the georeferencing feature works only
popular in studies conducted during the COVID-19 if “location” setting is turned on, meaning that there may
pandemic in the EAC region. Several countries resorted be many cases of individuals moving without the mobile
to using mobile phone surveys as a more efficient way to phone picking up such movements. Data collected through
collect information from the public, especially in the wake such digital sources have faced ethical and legal challenges,
of implementing containment measures, using the Google especially in the domain of data privacy rights, as noted in
Mobility dataset to map human mobility during the protests by human rights activists in Kenya and Uganda
3
pandemic period (Pinchoff et al., 2021; Quaife et al., 2020). who demanded for data protection laws (Article 19
This is based on earlier studies that demonstrated the Report, 2021).
mobile phone penetration within the region (Wesolowski Digital traveler locator apps were used to track
et al., 2012: Tomitsch, 2010). international air travelers to ensure that they adhere to the
Sulyok & Walker (2020) documented the changes quarantine measures through self-reporting. These include
in patterns of human mobility globally, including EAC the Jitenge App introduced in Kenya as a home-based care
countries, by comparing changes in the mobility patterns. self-reporting app for international travelers in July 2020 by
To monitor the trends of mobility during the lockdown the Ministry of Health in Kenya (Republic of Kenya, 2020c),
period in Kenya, several behavioral patterns related to and the CoronaCheck mobile app launched in 2020 for self-
4
evaluation and home-based screening in the Republic of
2 https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/stories/2021/cdc-supports-kenya-
expanding-emergency-response.html (accessed on February 8, 2022) Tanzania. Elsewhere, movement of truck drivers in the EAC
3 Google LLC. Google COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports. https:// 4 https://www.aku.edu/news/Pages/News_Details.
www.google.com/covid19/mobility/Accessed on 8 February 2022. aspx?nid=NEWS-002200 (accessed on February 8, 2022)

Volume 10 Issue 1 (2024) 114 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.357