Wins and challenges of ensuring a food secure nation

One of president Uhuru’s Kenyatta’s ambitions when he finishes his second term in 2022, is to leave Kenya a food secure nation.

It is part of his four-pronged economic blue print that also includes rejuvenating manufacturing, healthcare systems and housing.

But the path to achieving this dream is also littered with some glaring challenges that the state in partnership with the private sector needs to have to overcome in the long run.

 Recent reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Food and Agricultural Association (FAO), have shown that Kenya has a number of hurdles to overcome before it boasts of a healthy and well-fed populace that is capable of powering its economic growth.

These reports make one fact clear: that Kenya happens to be one of the countries with the biggest number of malnourished people in the world.

This is because apart from having a serious food security issue where many Kenyans, especially those living in the arid counties starve, a majority of the population is exposed to food that has no nutritional value at all.

This includes families living in well-endowed urban areas, and others confined in agriculturally well-to-do counties.

Statistics tabled by both FAO and state experts show that Kenya has a malnourishment rate of 19.7 per cent.

The figure is declining at a very slow annual rate of one per cent.

Which means that for the country to kick out malnourishment among its citizens, it will need at least 20 years to do so.

Generally, according to the statistics, 8.8 million Kenyans are malnourished.

A fact that puts to question Uhuru’s Big 4 agenda: ensuring access to affordable food by 2022.

At the same time, the statistics show that about 26 per cent of children below five years of age are too short for their age.

That means these children have stunted growth as a result of being underfed, and being exposed to food with little nutritional value.

“Stunted growth especially among children is a depiction of chronic undernourishment, which remains a serious national development concern. Stunting is considered most serious because of its irreversible consequences,” the survey warns.

Stunting is highest in West Pokot and Kitui counties at 46 percent; Kilifi, Mandera, Bomet, Tharaka Nithi, Narok and Uasin Gishu counties at between 31 per cent and 39 per cent.

Kwale, Tana River, Lamu, Wajir Marsabit, Meru, Embu, Machakos Nyandarua, Samburu, Kakamega and Nairobi counties at between 26 and 30 per cent.

 Again, only 22 per cent of children in Kenya aged between six and 23 months are adequately fed.

Women are also affected by another problem: obesity.

A third of all women in the country are obese. In Nairobi, 41 per cent of women are obese.

“It is sad that a country like Kenya is dreaming to gain meaningful economic growth – as envisaged by such lofty economic blueprints as the Vision 2030 – yet that dream is being rested on the shoulders of a malnourished population. Malnourishment affects even the brain. That is affecting someone’s cognitive abilities. That person cannot be expected to contribute much to the country’s economic fabric,” said Dr Romeno Kiome, an expert on nutrition, and a one-time Principal Secretary for Agriculture.

But Kiome also avers that not all is lost since the government has put up a lot of effort to ensure the country fights malnutrition.

These efforts are in terms of monetary allocations from the state and policies being made at the top level to ensure food security.

It could be a truism when you look at government figures, and the growth of the agricultural sector in the last five years.

Kenya’s economy is 70 percent agricultural based with the sector being the largest employer in the country.

For this reason, the agricultural sector accounts for nearly 25 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and yet it suffers from mismanagement and poor resource planning.

The National Treasury has allocated Sh20.25 billion to enhance food and nutrition security to all Kenyans by 2022, and Sh2.4 billion to support value addition and raise the manufacturing sector’s share to gross domestic product to 15 per cent by 2022.

If the state could stick to its plans then food security and the endeavor to have a population that is not wallowing in malnutrition is an achievable dream.