The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) this week released its seventh Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. As always, it makes extremely enlightening and provocative reading.
This annual report not only challenges our beliefs and attitudes, but is a massive resource that should shape policy development and budgetary planning at national and county levels. Unfortunately, however, most media houses chose to highlight the juicy, salacious items about Kenyans' sex lives rather than do justice to the comprehensive and professional survey. What stood out for me, however, were the positive indicators that demonstrate things are changing for the better. Overall, the report states that 78 per cent of the population are developing well health, learning and psychologically wise.
However, the most stand out feature is that fertility rate has dropped from 6.7 births per woman in 1989 to 3.4 births in 2022, that is a 50 per cent decrease in 23 years. Of course, that is significantly higher than the global rate of 2.5 but signifies a real shift.
The biggest contributory factor to the decline in the birth rate would appear to be that 63 per cent of women are now using modern contraceptives. Another noteworthy statistic is that the infant mortality rate has dropped from 115 in every 1,000 live births in 2003 to a current low of 41 per 1,000 live births. That is good news and another sign that devolving medical services to the counties has improved quality of health of citizens. But even that lower number is dangerously high when we realise the infant mortality rate in Ireland is 3.4 and US 5.6.
But on the subject of infants, it was disturbing to discover that 18 per cent of the under 5s have stunted growth due to undernourishment.
That figure was 35 per cent in 2009 but all of us should be upset that one in five children still gets a bad start in life that will affect them for their whole lives. That is unacceptable and for most part these infants are malnourished due to poverty.
Yes, progress has been made but having four million currently in need of food assistance is intolerable as the country approaches 60 years of independence. When Jesus said the poor you will have with you always, he did not say in resignation as if we can't do something to improve their plight.
Kenya Kwanza prioritised those at the bottom in their election manifesto with the knowledge that trickle-down economics has not brought any improvement to lives of the leftovers of society as Pope Francis calls them.
We have had a decade of social protection for those deemed to have fallen through the cracks but the 'Inua Jamii' initiatives are still half-hearted, disorganised and underfunded.
The State Department for Social Protection that handles these funds revealed to the budgets committee this week that estimates for the next three years indicate a decline in funds rather than an increase at a time when the cost of living has reached an all-time high.
The allocations for the current and next two years are less than one-third of the required amount, and decreasing each year from Sh36 billion in 2023 to Sh33 billion in 2025. The Treasury this month released Sh8 billion as four month's payment for the 1 million beneficiaries of the cash transfer programme but that only covered July-October of last year.
We are also informed that the real number in urgent need of this safety net is more like four million. But if bottoms-up economics means anything then it must give those at the very bottom a leg up on the ladder. The public understands that the country is now well served with mega structures that mostly benefits the top 20 per cent.
Now it is time to concentrate on the 22 per cent that KDHS say are not in good physical and psychological shape. The Inua Jamii programme falls under the Ministry of Labour, whose PS Geoffrey Kaituko hails from Turkana County and knows well the ravages of poverty.
He must now become an advocate of the poor and insist that the Cabinet puts its money where its mouth is and support its most vulnerable citizens.
