Poverty in Kenya

Kibera Township, Nairobi © Peter Armstrong

The prospects for Kenya meeting its poverty reduction targets set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) remain bleak; in 2006 46% of the population was unable to meet essential food and non-food requirements, more than the corresponding figure below this poverty line in 1992. Improvement during the recent years of more dynamic economic growth has been too slow to suggest that the target of halving the 1992 figure could be reached by 2015. Instead inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient has increased and extreme poverty (inability to meet basic food requirements) in 2006 was almost 20%.

Cyber Café in Kisumo, Kenya © Peter Armstrong

Progress toward attaining universal primary education is far more positive thanks to the 2003 decision to grant free access which has had the effect of increasing school enrolment by 2 million children. Despite these gains, regional inequalities are pronounced, particularly in the enrolment of girls in arid and semi-arid regions. There are also concerns about the pressure on educational standards that is bound to follow such sudden demand on capacity.

Cost analysis brutally exposes the gap between hope and reality in the MDG project. A needs assessment carried out in 2005 concluded that the cost of achieving the MDGs in Kenya would be $61 billion over the period to 2015. The level of foreign aid in recent years, somewhat constrained by donor concerns over standards of governance, has amounted to considerably less than $1 billion pa.

Food Security in Kenya

Food reserves in western Kenya © Peter Armstrong

In spite of its glossy image for tourists, the majority of Kenya's land is arid or semi-arid, the home of pastoral and nomadic people living on the margins of subsistence. 20% of the country's children aged under 5 years are underweight, a figure which has not improved since 2003. With only 18% of its territory suitable for farming, Kenya is not self-sufficient in food production and is vulnerable to unstable rain patterns. Successive years of drought up to 2006 compelled the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide support for over 3 million people. Then severe floods towards the end of 2006 affected a further 700,000, most of them cut off from help by inadequate roads. This cycle of drought and floods is known to be especially sensitive to the impact of climate change which looms in the background as a threat to food security.

Man-made shocks act on this vulnerability as much as more familiar extremes of weather. The post-election turmoil in early 2008 disrupted the March grain planting season with 50% of farmers not sufficiently prepared, according to the WFP. With signs of erratic rainfall in the arid regions and rising food prices stoking inflation, there are warnings of potential food insecurity in Kenya by the end of 2008.
Health and HIV/AIDS in Kenya

Anonymous HIV/AIDS question box about HIV/AIDS for Kisumo schoolkids, Kenya © Peter Armstrong

Like many of its neighbours, Kenya has suffered a massive human and economic loss from HIV/AIDS, reducing life expectancy to 52 years. But there are very encouraging signs of success in the fight against the virus – prevalence at the end of 2006 was 5.1%, down from 10% in the late 1990s. The National AIDS Control Council (NACC) reports greater awareness about HIV and significant change in risk behaviour. Antiretroviral drug therapy (ARV) is now available without charge in the public sector with half of those in need receiving treatment. A progressive law is being introduced to deal with discrimination against people living with HIV and to classify unscrupulous infection of a partner as a crime.

There remain important areas of concern such as the neglect of prevention programmes for high risk groups and the disturbing statistic that young women aged 15-24 are more than 5 times likely to become infected than men of similar age, reflecting the weak negotiating context for Kenyan women in sexual relations. Sustainability of the rate of progress is also an issue, given that over 90% of the cost of AIDS programmes is met by donors. NACC recommends that government spending on health should rise to 15% of the national budget.

Patients awaiting treatment, near Mombasa © Peter Armstrong

The commitment and apparent success of donors in tackling HIV/AIDS stands out in contrast to the dispiriting progress in other health indicators. Rates of child and infant mortality have increased remorselessly during the last 15 years and have no prospect of achieving MDG reduction targets. Malaria is the main cause of deaths of these children under 5 years; only 25% of children are protected by bednets; poor standards of paediatric treatment for HIV/AIDS is also a factor. Maternal mortality rates have fallen but remain high at over 400 deaths per 100,000 births. Fees charged by maternity hospitals have now been lifted for those unable to pay but the beleaguered health system remains short of 10,000 nurses.



The OneWorld Kenya Guide was first published in January 2006 with a text written by Volunteer Editor Keith Child

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