Poverty is running riot in Kenya despite introduction of devolution. Rural areas are hardest hit, hence the ceaseless rural-urban migration.
A recent survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Integrated Household Budget had it that 16.4 million out of 45 million Kenyans were living in abject poverty in 2015-16, where some 40.1 per cent of them (11.4 million) lived in rural areas as opposed to 27.5 per cent (0.9 million) in urban centres.
Towns are still more attractive to opportunity seekers in spite of housing and other inherent challenges.
The irony is the number of Kenyans categorised as poor fell by a paltry 200,000 in a period of 10 years during which the population grew by approximately 10 million, a sign of stagnation.
But why is it that rural areas bear the brunt of poverty even as more resources are deployed there since the onset of devolution? Reasons abound, but corruption, mismanagement and wrong priorities stand out like sore thumbs.
Leading the poverty pack are arid counties populated principally by pastoralists who routinely lose entire livestock herds to drought courtesy of poor and inept planning with Turkana (79.4 per cent), Mandera (77.6 per cent) and Samburu (75.8 per cent), but better endowed ones such as Busia (69.37 per cent) and others are not spared either.
Counties with lowest poverty levels according to the review include Nyeri, Kirinyaga and Meru in the Central region. I can add Kisii and Nyamira in Nyanza region and Kericho and Nandi in South Rift. A close scrutiny reveals they are buttressed by the presence of cash crops not compromised by unbridled imports.
Whereas Meru has lately emerged as a leading producer of bananas, tea and coffee have always been important cash crops there. The review did not mention Murang’a, and Nyandarua in the same region that have flourished out of cash crops not undermined by cheap imports, thanks to their low consumption locally
Greed and outright economic sabotage against some communities has a lot to do with rural poverty in many parts of Kenya. Take cotton for instance, a crop that once was an economic mainstay in Nyanza, Western, Lower Eastern and other areas where it has disappeared after the industry was knocked out by the influx into the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s of cheap second hand clothes popularly known as mitumba, leading to the collapse of the textile industry with major job and income losses.
Sugarcane growing areas in Nyanza, Western and Coast regions have continued suffering economic hemorrhage as the sector is deliberately bled to create room for cheap imports of the fast moving commodity.
UPROOTING THEIR CROP
The conduit to ensure locally milled sugar is expensive and in perpetual shortage ropes in sugar milling companies where people entrusted with management responsibilities run down the factories while engaging in outright theft. Frustrated farmers have ended up uprooting their crop for delayed payment or lack of it. Result? Poverty in the wake of massive job and income losses.
Experts say climatic conditions at the Coast are best suited for fast and quality sugarcane growing yet the once vibrant Ramisi Sugar Company was suffocated to death leaving a trail of poverty in its wake.
The growing of sugarcane planned for Galana Kulalu irrigation scheme never took off. Tana River County where the huge irrigation scheme is located ranks among the poorest in the country. Not even Galana Kulalu’s flagship maize growing project to breathe life into the staple.
Traditional maize growing areas in Trans Nzoia, Bungoma, Uasin Gishu and others have not escaped the poverty cancer as farmers struggle to produce the staple grain.
From an inefficient and cartel riddled National Cereals and Produce Board that fails to buy their crop or exposes them to exploitative middlemen and millers, the farmers are always grappling with crises to the delight of cartels that import cheap maize to make quick riches.
The trend has seen development partners with the wherewithal to offer support give a wide berth to farmers stuck with ailing crops in their stated preference to invest in healthy enterprises. A case in point is Proparco, a French development agency that provides long term funding in debt and equity for development projects all over the world.
The agency with its East African headquarters in Nairobi aims to promote the emergence of a buoyant, innovative, socially responsible private sector in developing and emerging economies in its bid to contribute to sustainable economic growth, supply essential goods and services and create jobs.
Proparco has been particularly active in the highly successful tea sub sector working with the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) where over 600,000 farmers are shareholders. The agency’s support has made the Kenya Green gold tea a beacon in a sector where Kenya is the leading exporter in the world.
In 2015, Proparco provided KTDA with a loan for the construction of seven small hydropower plants that supply clean energy to 24 factories managed by the agency and will soon grant a new loan to help farmers develop a new type of tea with the potential to open new markets worldwide.
Proparco also supports the flower sector in its mass production of exports to Europe.
The sector has been described as a central pillar of the Kenyan economy employing close to 500,000 Kenyans directly and indirectly. Through the Popraco’s support, Bigot Holdings for instance has grown to become one of the leading rose exporting companies in Kenya.
