Poverty in Kenya

The following information mainly focuses on trends of Kenya's poverty from 1990 to 2007.

The diagram shows trends in the gross domestic product of Kenya from 1960 to 2017.

In the 1990s, the reduction by about 5% in GDP growth rate indicated that Kenya's economic become stagnant and even shrunk.[5] The teetering economy made the poverty issue much more severe, reflected by a 12% ascending poverty incidence rate from 2000 to 2003.[6] In order to address the issue, the government introduced some policies, such as National Poverty Eradication Plan and Poverty Reduction Strategy. However, due to ineffective implementation, it failed to alleviate poverty radically.

After the new government taking office in 2003, there were early signs of economic recovery in Kenya. The annual GDP growth rate continued to increase during the period from 2003 to 2007. Owing to the success of the Economic Recovery Strategy developed by the new government, children had access to free primary education.[6] To some extent, improved education level and an economic boom have eased the poverty in Kenya.

Kenya has kept the leading economic position in the East African region with the gross domestic product at 74.84 billion US dollars in 2017. The Kenyan economy mainly relies on agriculture, livestock keeping and tourism.

Although only less than 20% of the land is suitable for cultivation, the agriculture industry still takes the dominant position in Kenya's economy. More than 75 percent of the population in Kenya makes a living from agriculture. However, an extensively distributed arid desert, unpredictable weather changes and backward technology makes the agricultural sector quite erratic. In Kenya, 80% of the territory is classified into arid and semi-arid lands, where there is highly variable rainfall and frequent droughts. More than a quarter of the population and half of livestock live in these areas. In times of serious drought, the government has to spend on average 50 dollars per family in relief supplies.

There was a severe drought in Kenya that began in October 2016, due to low rainfall and extremely high temperatures. In April 2017, the drought escalated and was declared a national emergency by the Kenyan government.[7] The drought gave rise to a slump in production of the staple crop (maize) and more than 2 million people were in need of food aid.[8]

Droughts reduce crop and livestock production, cause great financial losses in agriculture and increase unemployment rates. Besides, decline in food production forces the government to provide food assistance, incurring extra expenditures in the national budget. All these situations trigger more severe poverty issues in Kenya.

Kenya is an lower middle income unequal country and its inequality mainly reflected in wealth distribution, poverty level and human rights aspects.

Kenya's inequality is reflected by share of income and social services varying among different segments of the population. To be more specific, one-tenth of Kenyans have grasp approximately two-fifths of total wealth, implying that the overwhelming majority of Kenyans only shares less than 60 percent of the total wealth.[9] The wealth gap has not narrowed, even though the statistics show that the economy has grown by 19 percent. Disclosed by the World Bank in 2015, Kenya's GINI index was 40.8%,[10] indicating the unequal distribution of income. Distribution of welfare may always be a challenge to Kenya, because income inequality is a factor leading to social conflicts, violence, crime, which aggravates social instability and poverty issues.

In addition, poverty level is unequal in different regions. Measured by MPI, the percentage of poor people is much lower in the capital city. Compared to that, some large secondary cities’ percentage of poor people is much higher. For instance, there is 44% of population in Mombasa in relatively poor condition.[11] In addition to the huge inequality between different level of cities, inequalities in poverty level exists within cities. For example, in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, Kileleshwa's location level poverty is under 5%, while location level poverty of Korogocho and Laini Saba excess 60%.[11]

Kenya has significant gender inequality and Kenyan women continue to advocate for their equal right to property, security, financial services, healthcare, and education.[12]

Women may still need their spouse or father's consent before accessing a healthcare provider or taking time off from their traditional household roles.[13] Most institutions providing healthcare in Kenya afford women very little say over their own bodies; they may be forced to undergo abortions or female circumcision.[13] They also risk the chance of being reported to authorities if the physician believes that they were engaging in prostitution or drug use.[13]

Women also lack a basic education in Kenya and very few go on to higher education. Nearly 60% of young women do not attend secondary school either because there is no school close by or the school has little in the way of educational resources.[13] Even in schools, teachers put more value on teaching boys than girls, which usually allows men to be significantly more educated and access higher levels of education, while women are left behind.

Financial services and property rights are also still limited, as women have very little access to the basic needs and legal rights to start a business or live self-sufficiently.[12][14] Only 1% of Kenyan women own property and there are few women in business.[14] Women cannot open a bank account without their husband's or father's written approval, and they are rarely able to access the collateral to jump start a business. They also have little to no voice when speaking with city councils.

Corruption remains a severe and non-negligible issue in Kenya. There are 180 countries participating in the assessment of the corruption perceptions index. Kenya has ranked at 143 with the score of 28 in 2017.[15] And the score of Kenya for the past five years has fluctuated between 25 and 28, implying that corruption is still a serious problem. Kenya's corruption is prevalent within all levels of government with various ways.

Studies have found that Kenya is one of the most crime-infested countries in Africa. One of reasons is that even the police help crime. Especially in some rural areas, the police provide arms to criminals, assist to transfer stolen goods and release arrested criminals if criminals bribe the police.[16] The increasing criminal rate leads to instability of the society that directly reduces economic growth and further causes poverty problems.

Apart from bribe-taking, improper government expenditure and illegal possession of public resources by senior government officials also worsens Kenya's corruption phenomenon.

Some authority institutions, such as judiciary and legislature, are even considered as the channel of corruption. In the major reforms in 2011, many unqualified judges were removed from their positions.[17] Not strictly obeying the law is a common phenomenon in Kenya, and this type of phenomenon gives rise to cynicism and undermine social value, because instead of following the legitimate process, people in Kenya often find it easier to use corruption to solve problems. The society in Kenya without authoritative orders and binding regulations fails to establish effective social order and make good use of all public resources, which leads to poverty.

Addressing health problems remains a challenge for Kenya's government. Diseases that spread in the society reduce productivity and increases the health care expenditure of government, which worsens the poverty in Kenya.

According to the data from Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, diseases including pneumonia, HIV and malaria are main causes of mortality, which brings about 11.5%, 16.1% and 11.5% of deaths in the total register deaths respectively.[18] In particular, Kenya is ranked as 4th in highest HIV infections countries in the world with 1.6 million people infected with HIV.[19]

People with poor health condition decreases household incomes and increase medical expenditures, which may cause households to fall into poverty. HIV and malaria are especially prevalent in marginal areas, such as the Western and Nyanza Provinces. More than three-fifths of households in Kenya fall into poverty due to these diseases. Furthermore, decreasing available workforces and increasing government expenditures further strains the economy and worsens poverty.

Data from the Society for International Development shows that although nearly half of Kenya's people have access to improved water supply, there are over 19 million Kenyans still drinking unimproved water, such as unsafe water from rivers. Besides, there is large inequality in access of safe water. There are about 30 percent more improved water sites in urban areas than in rural areas.[20]

One of major causes of water crisis in Kenya is frequent droughts.[21] The Society for International Development has revealed that rivers are the most common supply of Kenya's drinking water.[20] However, more than half of Kenya's regions are classified as arid and are very arid areas with annual average rainfall at a very low level, and global warming exacerbates this situation. Rivers are an unstable source of water, especially in a dry climate period. Droughts damage Kenya's agricultural economy, cause famine and result in an even worse hygienic condition.[21]

According to data from the World Bank, renewable internal freshwater resources have been decreasing from 1970 to now.

Kenya is classified as a water limited country. According to data from the World Bank, the amount of renewable internal freshwater resources per capita has been decreasing from past to now and it has declined to under 450 cubic meters per capita in 2014.[22] According to the research conducted by Kimani-Murage and Ngindu in 2007, main activities that causes contamination of water in Kenya are washing clothes in rivers, pouring pollutants into rivers and using unclean containers to get water. These are especially common in rural area and some urban slums.[21] People in these areas often have no cleaner options. High population growth rate and inappropriate water policy also make the water problem become more severe.[21]

Unsafe water can cause diseases like bilharzia, cholera and diarrhea, while stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes that cause malaria infections to skyrocket. Shown by MSF clinic, three-fifths of all consultation is classified as caused by poor sanitation diseases.[21] Over 5 thousand children die from water-related diseases per day.[23]

Due to the severe water crisis, many Kenyans’ basic standards of living are not guaranteed and incidence of related diseases is high, which increases financial burden on the government and exacerbates poverty .