Help us to complete OneWorld Guides
Some developing countries are missing from our range of Country Guides. OneWorld wants to fill these gaps but we need financial help. If there is a country that you would especially like to see included, then you could make it happen...... find out more

Millennium Development Goals

Kibera Township, Nairobi © Peter Armstrong

The prognosis for Kenya to meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is bleak, being unlikely to meet the Goals for poverty reduction, gender equality, fighting AIDS, improving maternal health or environmental stewardship. Measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), Kenyans are worse off today than in 1980.

Progress toward attaining universal primary education is the one bright spot on an otherwise disappointing record. Beginning in 2003, Kenya instituted free primary education which has had the effect of increasing school enrolment by 2 million children. There is a further proposal for free tuition for secondary education. Recent enrolment gains at primary level have benefited girls, resulting in near gender parity. Despite these gains, regional inequalities are pronounced, particularly in the enrolment of girls in arid and semi-arid regions.

Kenya, Using water carefully © Pact, Inc

Poverty remains an enormous challenge for Kenya. Indeed current trends indicate significant growth rather than reduction in the number of people consigned to the margins of economic activity. The Kenyan government has defined the poverty line as $17 per month in rural areas and $36 per month in urban areas. In 1994, 47 percent of Kenyans fell below this line; today that figure has grown to 56 percent. Presently, 22.8 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day and 58.3 percent live on less than $2 per day.

Patients awaiting treatment, near Mombasa © Peter Armstrong

Sadly, child mortality levels have kept pace with the swelling numbers of destitute. Due to the increasing paucity of immunization against curable diseases, child mortality has climbed steadily from 90 per 1000 in 1990 to 115 per 1000 in 2003. Likewise, infant mortality shows a similar trajectory during this same period, increasing from 60 to 77 per 1000 in 2003.

The government of Kenya has recently taken substantive steps to reverse the backward slide in these MDG indicators. In 2005 it announced that the MDGs would be “mainstreamed” into national budgeting and planning processes and that funding would be progressively increased toward meeting MDG objectives. Given the enormity of the problems facing Kenya, however, these steps are likely to be only partial and ultimately insufficient in meeting the Goals.

Food Security

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. The country lacks robust food production and is vulnerable to unstable rain patterns. Successive years of drought up to 2006 compelled the World Food Programme to provide support for over 2 million people. Severe floods towards the end of 2006 affected a further 700,000, most of them cut off from help by inadequate roads. The return of the rains has however improved overall prospects for food production in the immediate future.
Health and HIV/AIDS

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 48 years. The current rate of infection is 6.1 percent of the adult population, down from a prevalence rate of 16 percent in urban areas and 8 percent in rural areas in the late 1990s. The lead agencies charged with combating the disease are the National AIDS Control Council and the National AIDS and STDs Control Programme (NASCOP). Antiretroviral drug therapy in Kenya remains prohibitively expensive for most people. Current estimates peg Kenya’s antiretroviral therapy need at 233,000 people, yet by the end of 2005 only 66,000 had received treatment -- well short of Kenya’s declared goal of treating 95,000.

Associated with HIV/AIDS, the rate of tuberculosis (TB) has increased in recent years to 108,000 new cases in 2005. For an already beleaguered health system the combined impact of HIV/AIDS and TB has been catastrophic. Over 50 percent of the country’s hospital beds are occupied by patients with HIV/AIDS related infections. Malaria is the main cause of deaths of children under 5 years; only 25% of children are protected by bednets.
Politics

Mwai Kibaki © Daily Nation / Daily Nation (Kenya)

Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963, but since then has had only three Presidents. The first, Jomo Kenyatta held office from 1963 to 1978; the second, Daniel arap Moi inherited the post from Kenyatta and retained power until the most recent election in December, 2002 when Mwai Kibaki of the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) toppled Kenya’s historic ruling party -- the Kenya African National Union (KANU) -- to form the new government. This election was widely regarded as free and fair and, after years of repression Kenya now has an embryonic, but vibrant civil society. For many observers, the electoral defeat of KANU was greeted as the dawn of a new, more democratic era, and was even described as Kenya’s “second liberation”.

Kenyans vote on new Constitution © John Nyaga / United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Network

The current mood is less euphoric. The new government promised to reduce government corruption and took a number of positive steps in that direction: in addition to the Public Officer Ethics Act which is intended to provide a code of conduct for public officials, the government passed the Privatization and Procurement Bills with the aim of closing loopholes that have allowed corruption in the past; it took strong legal action against corrupt officials in the revenue and public works departments, the police and military; and it extended significant financing to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) for staff procurement. Despite these steps, Transparency International, among others, argues that little has actually changed and that the government is simply trying to placate the international donor community. Recent revelations concerning the so-called Anglo Leasing Scandal have indeed implicated officials in the Kibaki government in a massive fraud.

In a national referendum in 2005, Kenyans voted against a new constitution that was intended to reduce the power of the office of the President. According to the “no” side the proposed changes would do little to curb the power of the chief executive. The rejection of the new constitution was a stinging rebuke to President Kibaki who had invested enormous political capital in the project. It also led to the break-up of his rainbow coalition – the Liberal Democratic Party failed to support the constitution and is now in opposition. Kibaki has reorganized his remaining supporters into the National Rainbow Coalition - Kenya (NARC-Kenya) party and he will presumably contest the presidential elections in December 2007.
Human Rights

Maasai farmers protest against climate change © Practical Action

Another criticism of the draft constitution concerned its failure to protect minority ethnic rights in matters of ownership of land and minerals. Ambiguity over these rights in Kenya creates a vacuum for unsavoury jockeying for political power, generating tensions which boil over into local violence, especially in the run-up to elections. The most serious current example of these land clashes is in the Mount Eldon region in the west where 150 people have been killed and over 60,000 displaced. There are over 400,000 people displaced within Kenya, one of the highest figures in Africa. The government makes little provision for the rights of these IDPs.

Similar displacement concerns have been prompted by the recent conflict in Somalia which has drawn attention to the Dadaab refugee camps in north-east Kenya. Already home to 160,000 refugees, the region received an additional 34,000 Somalis during 2006. A combination of deteriorating conditions and fears of an influx of extremist militia led Kenya to close the border towards the end of the year. Humanitarian agencies have protested that this action is in breach of obligations under the Geneva Convention for refugees.

Violence against women has finally entered public debate in Kenya with politicians beginning to recognise the seriousness of a culture in which about 50 women are believed to be raped every day, of which few cases are reported and even fewer prosecuted. There are laws against gender violence, including the custom of female genital mutilation, but their impact remains very low, especially in poorer regions.
Economy

Phonelines in Kenya © Peter Armstrong

Poor economic growth coupled with an uneven distribution of wealth are the two principal reasons for Kenya’s dismal MDG record. Currently, the richest 10% of the population control almost half of the nation’s wealth, while the poorest 10% control only 1%. Although the incidence of corruption is falling, it has long been considered a key reason for Kenya’s low growth rates, particularly by the World Bank and the IMF who have adopted cautious lending policies in view of the government’s failure to enact tougher anti-corruption reforms. Government corruption, however, is only one of many factors that constrain growth, including an uneven distribution of wealth, onerous debt servicing charges, unfair trading practices in OECD countries, misguided liberalization policies, capital flight, brain drain and private sector corruption, to name only a few.
Information and Media

Cyber Café in Kisumo, Kenya © Peter Armstrong

After initial optimism that press freedom would increase following the 2002 election, recent events have done little to inspire confidence. A spate of media harassment cases combined with the failure of the new government to reform legislation dealing with press freedom have contributed to a growing sense of unease among journalists in the country. The unprecedented May 2006 government closure of Kenya’s second largest media outlet by force marked a new low point in the country’s struggle for press freedom. Reporters Without Borders lowered Kenya’s international ranking from 75th in 2002 to 118th in 2006.

Mobile for Good, Kenya © Peter Armstrong

The government is also struggling to allow appropriate space for the potential of new media, as efforts to create a national policy for information and communications technologies have yet to come to fruition. The logistical barriers are formidable; in a country of over 30 million people there are less than half a million subscribers to telephone lines and electricity is a luxury for just 6% in rural Kenya. Radio remains a vital medium whilst civil society is playing an innovative role in bringing the benefits of new technologies to poor communities. The explosion in mobile phone ownership leapfrogs the shortcomings in infrastructure and partnerships with the private sector are yielding real results for livelihoods and health through SMS technology.
Environment

Wangari Maathai © Martin Rowe / Women Thrive Worldwide

By far the most severe environmental threat to Kenya is caused by increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns that are consistent with the predictions of human induced global warming. The consequence is uncertain food security, malnutrition and poverty, and an escalation of violent land disputes as the area’s pastoralists compete for scarce water resources.

The injustice of global warming should not detract from the importance of locally induced environmental problems caused largely by non-sustainable agricultural production, including pesticide contamination of fresh water resources, desertification and soil erosion. A shortlist of other environmental problems include hyacinth infestation of Lake Victoria, degradation of national parks from poorly regulated tourism, and water pollution from industrial waste. On a positive note, Kenya’s most famous environmentalist Professor Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 in recognition of her work with the Green Belt Movement.



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

---------