Kenya

BORDERING ON THE Indian Ocean, the sub-Saharan African nation of Kenya straddles the equator. Historically the Republic of Kenya has been beset with problems that range from charges of human rights abuses and government corruption to severe droughts and extreme poverty. Charges of human rights abuses stem from Amnesty International's reports that Kenyan police have killed more than 100 people and engaged in widespread torture. Government corruption has been so extensive that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) withdrew development funds from Kenya in 1997.

In this country, in which 75 percent of the population are engaged in subsistence agriculture, a yearlong drought that began in 1999 was so devastating that water and energy were rationed, further reducing the food supply through ensuing reductions in agricultural output. Even though the IMF granted aid to Kenya throughout the drought, funds were again withdrawn in 2001 for the same reasons as before. After the drought, sporadic rains produced some relief, but the Kenyan economy has recovered slowly.

By 2004, moderate growth and anticorruption measures began restoring confidence in the shaky economy. Nevertheless problems associated with a poverty rate of 52 percent, an unemployment rate of 40 percent, increased infant mortality and death rates, the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases, and disappointing population and growth rates threatened Kenya's economic stability.

Kenyans live on an average annual income of $360, with 58.2 percent of the people living on less than $2 a day and 23 percent surviving on less than $1 per day. Kenyans are also subject to drastic inequalities in income and landownership. The richest 20 percent of the population share 51.2 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 20 percent claim only 5.6 percent. The poorest [Page 613]70 percent of the population hold only 43 percent of all land. Kenya is ranked 44.5 on the Gini Index of Human Inequality.

Among Kenya's population of 33,829,590, the median age is 18.19 years, and life expectancy are 47.99 years. Some 42.5 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and a mere 2.3 percent are over the age of 65. Kenyans have less than a 50 percent chance of living to the age of 40. The devastating 6.7 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Kenya is a major reason for high mortality rates. Approximately 1.2 million Kenyans live with HIV/AIDS, which had resulted in 150,000 deaths by 2003.

Some 43 percent of Kenyans lack access to safe water. Approximately 21 percent obtain water from boreholes and another 28.3 percent derive water directly from lakes and rivers. The lack of adequate sanitation is also a major problem in this country where 72.8 percent ofthe population use pit latrines to dispose of human waste. Only 7.1 percent have access to main sewers, and a scant 2.5 percent use septic tanks and cesspools.

As a result of unsafe water and poor sanitation practices, Kenyans face a very high risk of contracting food-and waterborne diseases such as bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever. Water contact diseases such as schistosomiasis and vectorborne diseases are also common. A tough strain of malaria has surfaced that has proved resistant to the “malaria cocktail” used to treat the disease. There are only 44 physicians for every 100,000 Kenyans, and almost half of the people lack access to affordable lifesaving drugs.

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