The eruption of the Covid-19 pandemic dealt the biggest setback to efforts to reduce extreme poverty in Kenya. An estimated two million Kenyans were pushed deeper into poverty. As a result, Kenya, like many countries in the world, is unlikely to meet the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
The ripple effects of the war in Ukraine coupled with the perils of climate change, especially the longest and severe drought have further pushed the country deeper into poverty.
According to the World Bank, climate change will potentially impoverish 100 million people in the next decade or so. As such, Kenya’s proposal to plant 1.5 billion trees must go beyond rhetoric and become a reality.
The recent spell of political conflict in Kenya has weakened communities that are already struggling, undermined the economy and exacerbated poverty. Properties worth billions are destroyed in anti- government protests.
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The high costs of food, other consumer stuff and housing. It is estimated that 60-80 percent of the incomes of the poor is spent on food.
Kenya’s growing inequalities have benefited the wealthy and pampered the upper class, pushed the vast bulk of the middle class to poverty and brutalized the poor lower class.
Poverty is also turning the youth bulge into a demographic time bomb. Kenya’s total population will increase from an estimated 55 million in 2023 to 115 million by 2065, according to UNESCO.
Correspondingly, the population of young people between 15 and 24 years will increase by more than 10 million to 18 million, and many of these young people living in extreme poverty.
Moreover, Kenyan youth aged 20 to 29, the age bracket of fresh university graduates, had an unemployment rate of more than 32.4 percent as of 2020, according to data from KNBS.
Exclusionary policies have created social injustice and undermined efforts to lift the poor out of poverty. Discrimination along racial, gender, age, ethnic and religious lines limit access by the poor to job opportunities, good education and resources.
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As recent events in Kenya have shown, widespread poverty has lured poor Kenyans into dangerous, unregulated churches or cults.
More than 110 Kenyan followers of Paul Mackenzie, a ‘cult leader’ with the Good News International Church, have perished after the preacher told them to starve themselves to death in order to ‘meet Jesus’!
Kenya needs to focus on effective national policy reforms to help reduce poverty.
The country should avoid introducing broad subsidies that end up benefiting the wealthy classes, and widening the poverty gap. Instead, it should increase targeted cash transfers to the poor.
The country should invest in high-return investments in education, research, development and infrastructure projects and mobilize domestic revenues without hurting the poorest of society.
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