CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
Kenya
Alarming situations developing
SOCIAL CONDIT.
The author brings to our attention two situations
which are having a disastrous effect on Kenya’s well-being —
the fact that so many citizens are living in a poverty-stricken situation;
and that little progress in being made in the fight against AIDS
Poverty
Ranked today as the 22nd poorest country in the world with a per capita GNP of $280, Kenya is perhaps facing its worst economic crisis ever, with the poor bearing the brunt of it. Long before the first morning light, thousands of workers trudge from the sprawling slums of Nairobi to the factories of Nairobi’s Industrial Area. Out of the densely packed shacks and the mud lanes, more and more people join the trail. Those with jobs in the factories are probably ranked among the lucky ones, even though wages are pitifully low and most of these workers are casual labourers.
More than half Kenya’s population has to survive on less than $1 per day. These include most of the residents of the burgeoning urban slums like Kibera in Nairobi, where an average family lives in a one-room shack without running water, electricity or a toilet.
Taking a bus to and from the factory every day would cost more than the family earns. Surviving on one meal a day, usually of the staple maizemeal dough, ugali, and boiled spinach is normal.
One evident indicator of the growth of poverty is the falling rate of enrolment in schools. Around a third of children of school-age in Nairobi don’t go to school because their parents can’t afford the fees.
Signs of an economy in decline — The government is all but broke, with the city showing all the signs of an economy well advanced in decline. The city council stopped providing rubbish collection services to most areas long ago, and piles of stinking refuse pose unseemly but now familiar landmarks. Boys and men dressed in rags are commonly there foraging in the rubbish for anything salvageable. Downtown business areas like Kirinyaga Road is all but unreachable because of the crater-like potholes that you navigate at your own peril in a small car.
Every key sector of Kenya’ economy is troubled. Tourism, once the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner, has slumped to an all-time low. Many of the hotels at the coast have closed down, with those still remaining in business having laid off most of the staff. Struck by the wave of pre-election political violence in 1997, Kenya has struggled to recover its image as a holiday destination, but poor infrastructures, high prices, low standards of service and rising crime are keeping tourists away.
Tea, coffee and horticultural products, which are subject to fluctuating world prices and sometimes unreliable weather conditions, are still valuable assets to Kenya. However, there is not much effect felt from these resources. Small-scale tea growers have demonstrated in Nairobi, complaining that the government-run Kenya Tea Development Authority is siphoning off profits that belong to them.
Gross mismanagement and corruption has eroded the profitability of most agricultural sectors. i.e. Tea, coffee, sugar, maize, milk. Liberalization has failed to free farmers from the burden of control by inefficient government bodies.
However, there is still money to be made, and a small number of people continue to make it by fair means or foul. Kenya is said to have the third largest gap between the rich and the poor in the world. Luxury shopping malls are still springing up almost every month, and the number of those driving flashy large luxury cars is swelling.
The chairman of the Kenyan Association of Manufacturers, Chris Kirubi, says that the depression in 1999 was even greater that the previous year. The causes were the low purchasing power of the consumer, poor infrastructures such as the roads, power and water; too heavy taxation and high cost of raw materials and institutionalized corruption.
What’s been happening? — So, what’s been happening with the poor getting poorer all the time. The government and its lack of political will is entirely to blame for all this. It’s galling for Kenyans to continually read that public money is still disappearing at a rapid rate. The latest report by the Auditor-general said that President Moi’s office had spent US $46.2 million in 1997-1998, taken from government accounts without any supporting documentation. The ministries of defence and transport were accused of misusing funds, with decades-old defence projects costing more than $50 million never having been completed.
The irony is, that at a grand ceremony early in 1999, Moi launched the National Poverty Eradication Plan, ostensibly aimed at implementing measures to tackle the scourge of poverty. But if past records are anything to go by, the government has proven reluctant to fully involve stakeholders such as the poor people themselves and their representatives.
Spirit of hard work — At the jua kali (literally meaning «cruel sun») workshops at Kamkunji, on the seamier side of Nairobi, the sound of hammering is deafening. Jua kali refers to the metal workers and carpenters who labour in the open sun, often at the roadside. This is a vast part of the informal sector of the economy. Jua kali workers, hawkers and kiosk vendors, who represent the spirit of hard work and entrepreneurship, frequently suffer harassment by the security forces and the city council officials, including the destruction of their wooden structures and wares.
Far from building the economy, the government is punishing many of its strongest contributors who, in the long run, have to suffer the scourge of poverty, apparently loaded upon them from on high.
HIV/AIDS
Since the first AIDS case was reported in the country some 15 years ago (1984), the disease has continued to spread at an alarming rate, with recent figures given by the medical authorities standing at 420 deaths a day. According to a UNICEF report, an estimated 1.3 million Kenyans were infected with HIV by September 1997. Currently there are over 2 million cases of which 100,000 are children.
One of the major consequences of AIDS in Kenya is that it has reduced life expectancy, and increased the incidence of illness and death among children. Various reports have given a very dark picture of children dropping out of school at an alarming rate as a result of AIDS. They either lose both parents to AIDS, or become infected themselves.
20 per cent of students in secondary schools and colleges are estimated to be HIV-positive. This means that one in every 5 students is infected with the deadly virus. At risk are the students between the ages of 15 and 19.
The above figures show that these Kenyan children are not only aware of sexual matters, but also become sexually active at a very tender age. A vigorous public awareness campaign on AIDS-related issues has yet to take root in Kenya. Since the first victim went public about AIDS in the early 1990s, it is interesting to note that little has changed in the way in which AIDS victims are handled by society, or the way the stigma attached to having AIDS still persists.
A lot needs to be done about having a constructive AIDS policy which will reach everyone in the country. For instance, when the sessional paper no. 4 of 1997 on «AIDS in Kenya» was tabled in parliament by the then Minister for Health, Gen. (Rtd) Jackson Mulinge, policy statements were made with the understanding that the Government’s commitment will go beyond the development of this Sessional Paper.
Some of the major issues recommended for serious consideration were: Continued monitoring of the prevalence and the trends of the epidemic; strengthening surveillance systems; drawing up strategic plans to address critical areas in AIDS-related activities; mandating relevant institutions to collect data on AIDS and factors that influence its spread; ensuring that research findings are accessible to interested parties at all levels.
Action to be taken — On the economic front, the government has to consider the development of new strategies for resource mobilization for AIDS/Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) prevention activities. Money has been provided to educate people and to fight the disease, provided the allocated funds are not misappropriated. Sadly, there have been all too-many cases recorded of misuse of funds earmarked for AIDS programmes in Kenya. Here, both government and certain NGOs must share a degree of responsibility.
Free education and social support for orphans of AIDS victims should be implemented. The government should also ensure proper co-ordination of research on AIDS and other STDs and also advocate a National Social Policy to address social-cultural factors that influence transmission of HIV or its containment. The list of awaited promises is endless and the action taken — minimal.
Surely, if the government intends to fight the scourge successfully, it has to start with making use of the contents of the Sessional Paper No. 4 on AIDS, published way back in 1997!
We have not yet reached a situation of despair and agony, but sometimes one begins to wonder.
James Pod, Kenya, February 2000 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment
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PeaceLink 2000 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement