Kenyans bear the burden of endless campaigns

By Morris Aron

A forward looking report released by the Government, has brought to life the extent of poverty, with 41 per cent of the population living on less than Sh77 a day.

Despite the much-lauded economic growth between 2003 and 2007, the report says Kenyans are poorer now compared to 10 years ago. According to the report released on Wednesday, three million more Kenyans lapsed into extreme poverty from 1997 to 2006.

The Kenya Economic Report, the first to be released by Ministry of Planning, the Vision 2030 Secretariat and the Kenya Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (Kippra), is an audit of the country’s macroeconomic performance over the last one year. It also forecasts expected outcomes with a global perspective.

It points a finger at Kenya’s turbulent politics, high inflation and corruption in Government as key reasons for the collapse in the standards of living.

Speaking at the launch of the report, Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya said it confirms Kenya’s obsession with politics at the expense of the economy. "Kenya is among the most political countries where people consume politics day in day out instead of focusing on ways to grow the economy,’’ said Mr Oparanya.

Out of Kenya’s population of 40 million, 16.6 million barely survive on one meal a day, and are also the most likely to die from disease, hunger and political violence.

As expected, the incidence of poverty is highest in rural areas, where half of the population is poor living on less than Sh1, 560 a month compared to the urban areas where one in three residents is poor and survives on Sh3, 000 a month.

Even more worrying is that agriculture, on which many Kenyans in rural areas depended upon, is no longer enough to sustain them, and most have turned to supplementing their meager incomes with money from relatives in formal and informal employment.

Kippra estimates that each individual earning some form of income has to feed, clothe and educate at least eight other people.

The figures compare poorly to Ghana, for example, where the dependency ratio is two dependants per working individual.Bound to worsen

Nowhere is the gravity of the disparity more stark that from the news the poorest of the poor Kenyans, who constitute 10 per cent of the population, controls just two per cent of total consumption.

The rich class, which separate reports puts at 20 per cent of Kenya’s population, controls 40 per cent.

Kippra Executive Director Moses Ikiara said the trend is bound to worsen, unless Kenya comes out of what now seems to be a permanent state of election politics.

"The analysis of the data from our research shows that the unstable political climate has played a huge part in the trends we are witnessing," said Mr Ikiara.

The report indicates that while the country has made progress in putting in place strong regulatory frameworks that encourage accountable institutions and improved response on issues affecting the majority, more still needs to be done in tackling corruption and disregard to the rule of law.

Among the recommendations proposed are a Budget Law and a decentralisation policy. Also recommended is strengthening of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. This is especially for projects under the Constituency Development Fund.

According to the report, for Kenya to achieve better economic growth, the country will have to move away from rain-fed agriculture, by increasing acreage under irrigation and embark on value addition in the agro-processing industry.

Kenya also needs to look at ways of countering the growing threat to food security posed by global climate change by making bio-fuels, addressing climate change issues, lowering production costs across all sectors, and increasing credit access for farmers.

According to the latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) — that indicates success or failure of a country in combating hunger — Kenya reduced hunger by just five per cent between 1992 and 2007, compared to Ghana’s 40 per cent.Youth unemployment

To address joblessness, the report recommends that job creation should be at least three per cent to counter the growth in the labour force market. The main challenges, however, include the rapidly growing labour force — at three per cent annually in the last decade — high youth unemployment, the problem of working poor and underemployment.

The report notes that reforms in education undertaken in the last couple of months are beginning to bear fruit, with access to education, internal efficiency and gender equity improving.

However Kenya still lags behind with a low education index, as a large proportion of labour force has not attained basic education and technical skill, compared to countries like Mauritius and South Africa that have a higher education index. This is due to low access to quality education at the post-primary level in Kenya.

The report recommends the need for sustained political stability, effective funding of the budget and reforms implementation as the key areas that will ensure macro-economic growth.