Benson Kathuri
9 September 2005
Nairobi — More Kenyans fell into the poverty trap last year despite the upturn in the country's economy, a United Nations report says.
As an indication of the drop in human welfare, the report says life expectancy has dropped to below 40 years for 35.8 per cent of the national population.
This means that more than 10 million Kenyans will not live to see their 40th birthday.
The Fourth Kenya Human Development Report that was released yesterday indicates that the Human Poverty Index, which measures how far citizens are deprived of basic needs and opportunities of self-advancement, increased from 34.1 in 2002 to 36.7 in 2004.
The lower the index the lower the level of impoverishment. The index shows that poverty was on the rise in Nairobi, Central, Nyanza and Eastern provinces while improvement was recorded in Coast, Western, North Eastern and Rift Valley provinces.
The report indicates that life expectancy is lowest in rural areas where poverty is widespread and public services scarce.
The UN report pours cold water on the country's economic recovery programme saying the Government is far from winning the war against poverty.
"Kenya is not on track in halving poverty and if per capita incomes grew by one per cent each year, it would only have the number of the poor in 2013," said Paul de la Porte, UNDP Resident Representative.
At this pace, he said, the country would fall in the category of nations that are unlikely to meet their Millennium Development Goals (MDG). De la Porte said Kenya could only succeed in halving the number of the poor by through formulation of policies that ensure the doubling of the share of the poor in future growth.
The statistics indicate that Nyanza has the lowest life expectancy with 46 per cent of its people classified as likely to die before their 40th birthday.
All welfare indicators for region that is also the worst hit by HIV/Aids changed for the worse with Suba earning the dubious distinction as the district with the lowest life expectancy, literacy level and per capita income.
Other districts with similar statistics include West Pokot, Samburu, Turkana and Marsabit.
Nairobi Province, which boasts of better facilities like schools, roads, and piped water is ranked top.
Only 32 per cent of the city's residents, mostly living in the slums, are likely to die before age 40.
Nithi in Eastern Province is ranked as the rural district with the highest life expectancy followed by Mombasa, Embu and Nyeri districts.
On poverty, Kiambu topped the list as the country's richest district followed by Nairobi, Nyeri, Maragua and Thika.
Tana River in the Coast Province is the poorest district followed by Turkana, Machakos, West Pokot and Samburu districts.
Planning and national Development minister Anyang' Nyong'o attributed the widespread poverty to corruption and economic mismanagement of past governments.
"Poor economic governance, including high levels of corruption and poor management of public resources, is the key impediment to the country's economic and social development," he said. "It has distorted the rule of law and weakened the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends."
Though most Kenyans expected an improvement in their lives after the 2002 elections, the report indicates that not much has changed. The 4.3 per cent growth rate recorded lat year has not cushioned the people against the impact of poverty.
Nyong'o urged Kenyans to intensify the war against poverty before it becomes unmanageable.
He warned that poverty levels, estimated at 56 per cent of the population, may reach intolerable levels and force the poor to target the rich.
"All members of society should have an income sufficient to enable them appear in public without shame," the minister said.
Going by yesterday's report, the government faces an uphill task as unemployment is on the rise. The report indicates that more people were pushed into the informal sector.
The country has between 5,000- 6,000 industries, half of them located in Nairobi. The other half are located in urban centres countrywide.
The report says Kenya has 173,000 micro and small enterprises most of them located in the urban areas.
In the agricultural sector, small-scale farmers, who dominated the horticultural sector in the seventies, have lost to the large commercial farmers.
The commercial farmers have also mechanised their farms leading to massive loss of job opportunities. "In 1977, small scale farms supplied almost three quarters of value added horticultural exports," said De la Porte.
"By 2000, this share had fallen to 18 per cent."
In the formal industrial sector dominated by large manufacturing firms, food and beverage sub-sector is the biggest employer accounting for 34 per cent of all job opportunities.
Other leading sub-sectors include chemicals and petroleum (11 per cent), metal (16 per cent) and textile and clothing (16 per cent).
In the micro and small enterprises, textile and leather is the biggest (28 per cent), wood (26 per cent), food and beverages (23 per cent) and hardware (8 per cent).
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2005 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
