According to the World Bank, Kenya's
economy will grow an estimated 5.7 percent in 2013 before accelerating to 6% in
2014. This is on the back of impressive, unprecedented growth over the past
decade. Despite projections of considerable economic growth and increasing
self-confidence as a major regional economic player, millions of lives are
wrecked daily by poverty, malnutrition and by pitiable public investment in
health and education services.
About
44% or 2 out of every 5 Kenyans live in conditions of extreme poverty,
subsisting on less than Ksh.105 a day. These Kenyans spend 50-80% of their income on food and are sinking deeper
into a poverty trap triggered by hunger. According to the World Health Organization, around 35% of children under
five in Kenya are stunted through malnutrition, with food insecurity widespread
in many rural parts of the country.
A food security, vulnerability
and nutrition assessment conducted by the government of Kenya in 2010 revealed
that more than 25% of urban children were stunted while 13% of urban households
had unacceptably low levels of food consumption. In May 2012, the government distributed
4,800 bags of rice and soya and another 400 tins of cooking oil to poor
households Nairobi, where it was estimated that 65% were food insecure.
Only 4% of Kenya’s 75% rural population has access to
electricity. Wood, charcoal, dung and crop residue supply 76% of Kenya’s
domestic energy needs. There is a strong correlation between exposure to
biomass fuel and respiratory infections in children. A report published by the
Ministry of Health in 2004 revealed that acute respiratory infections
contribute to 70% of mortality in children less than 5 years of age.
A report by Uwezo, an
education advocacy group, revealed that among standard 3 pupils only 28% from
the poorest households had achieved expected numeracy and literacy, compared to
48% in the richest households among grade 3 pupils. 25% of the over
800,000 children who finished primary school in 2102 will not transition to
high school. The path to gaining skills and competing in a knowledge economy
does not exist for a majority of our children.
According
to the 2009 census, only 2 million of 14.5 million Kenyans in employment have
stable jobs, which pay a living wage. 12.5 million Kenyans are employed in
sectors that are highly vulnerable and do not pay enough to lift our fellow
citizens out of poverty. Inequality is staggering; the richest 10% of
households spent on average 14.3 times more than the poorest 10% of households
in 2011.
The
impressive growth of the last decade has not trickled down. Kenya’s overriding
preoccupation with economic growth makes no sense without recognizing that sustained
gains in human welfare depend on how that wealth is created and distributed. Our
economy, which is largely driven by services, has the least potential to
generate a broad based shared GDP growth for a population dominated by
unskilled school dropouts and struggling smallholder and pastoralists. In a
sense, Kenya’s growth path is highly defective and exacerbates inequality.
This path of inequitable growth
will have serious implications for political and socio-economic development,
undermining the tenuous foundations of our young democracy. GDP growth without investment
in human development is unsustainable and unethical. What is the purpose of a growth
path that produces handful billionaires, luxury shopping malls and
superhighways rather than access to water and sanitation, high quality
education for our children, better nutrition and security for millions of
Kenyans?
We must learn from China, where massive
investment in expansion of education and healthcare in the 1970s is paying off
and has proved critical to undergirding China’s sustained economic growth.
Without comparable investments in laying such a foundation, Kenya’s economic
growth will remain modest and vulnerable.
We must make public investments, which will
give the vast majority of our fellow citizens a toehold on the first rung of
the ladder out of poverty. These include support to smallholder farmers and
pastoralists, affordable public transport such as bus rapid transit, affordable
mixed–income housing in urban areas and vocational training and work readiness for
recent graduates.
What holds Kenya back is not the quality of our
air or soils or water but successive governments, which lack clear-headed,
long-term policies and the political will to follow through. We must ask and
demand more of our government and ourselves. Most of all, our collective
conscience must be stirred because when our conscience quickens political
action will follow.
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