Three million Kenyans plunge into poverty

More than three million Kenyans joined the ranks of the poor between 1997 and 2006, even as the government claimed it was winning the war against poverty.

The number of those living below the poverty line increased from 13.4 million in 1997 to 16.6 million in 2006, according to a new government’s “Kenya Economic Report 2009”, compiled by the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra).

The situation is so dire that the number of Kenyans depending on others is 84 per cent compared to other countries such as Ghana, which has a ratio of 20 per cent.

The Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey, released in 2007, showed that national absolute poverty had declined from 55.5 per cent in 2000 to 46 per cent in 2005/06.

Growth rate cut

The figures could be worse now with the current drought and food shortages, which have left up to 10 million Kenyans at risk of starvation, and the global economic meltdown, cutting the growth rate from 7.1 per cent in 2007 to 1.7 per cent last year.

Instructively, the report shows that, whereas there were remarkable improvements in the economic performance in the last five years until 2007, it is only in 2006 and 2007 that per capita income — the worth of each individual Kenyan — exceeded the 1997 levels.

“This shows that despite the progress we may have recorded over the years, poverty remains a major challenge to the economy,” noted the executive director of Kippra, Dr Moses Ikiara, during the report’s launch at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies on Wednesday.

The findings come at a time when the government is in the initial stages of implementing its long-term economic development strategy, Vision 2030.