NAIROBI, Kenya
More than half of Kenyans live in poverty, according to a new measurement that goes beyond the lack of money.
ASALS POVERTY: A woman fetches dirty water from a shallow well in Kerio, Turkana Central
The
multidimensional poverty index raises Kenya's poverty rate to 53 per cent,
compared to 36.1 per cent when looking at money only.
Kenya
National Bureau of Statistics Director, Zachary Mwangi on Monday said the
multidimensional index looks beyond income to include access to safe water,
education, electricity, food and six other indicators.
"A
person is considered multidimensional poor if she/he is deprived in three or
more dimensions," he said.
The
new index shows 23.4 million Kenyans are multidimensional poor, compared to
15.9 million if one were looking at income only.
The
index is contained in the new Comprehensive Poverty Report, produced by KNBS, Unicef and UN Women.
This is
the first attempt in Kenya to measure poverty in a comprehensive manner using data from the Kenya Integrated Household Budget
Survey (KIHBS) 2015-16.
Treasury
Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani who launched the report on Monday said among
children under five years, deprivation in housing, nutrition and sanitation
were the three largest contributors to multidimensional poverty.
"Among
children aged five-17 years, deprivation in nutrition, housing and sanitation
were the three largest contributors to multidimensional poverty," he said.
The
new index is one of the many ways to measure poverty and was developed by
Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, and used for the first time
in the 2010 by the UNDP Human Development Report.
While
measuring income only, one is considered
poor if they live in a household with monthly expenditure below Sh 5,995 for
urban and Sh 3,252 for rural dwellers.
Yatani
said lack of education, housing and economic activity were the largest
contributors to poverty among adult women and men in Kenya.
He
said the data will help Kenya assess its progress in achieving SDG target 1.2,
which commits nations to reduce by half
the proportion of women, men and children living in poverty in all its
dimensions.
"This
report provides the baseline against which to evaluate our progress towards
this goal," he said.
It
shows only 29 per cent of Kenyan women are considered empowered.
He
further launched 47 County Poverty Briefs, which are summaries of the
comprehensive poverty report, and 47 County Budget Briefs,
which analyse social sectors’ budgets focusing on health, education, child
protection, youth and women services, water and sanitation, and nutrition.
The two counties reports were produced by Nairobi-based state think-tank Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research & Analysis. – The Star
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