According to the Kenya
National Bureau of Statistics, only 12 of every 100 people are
classified as poor in Kajiado, whereas in Turkana 94 people of 100 live
in abject poverty.
The bulk of economic activity has been highly concentrated in this productive agricultural zone giving rise to several major rural urban centres.The majority of the country’s population lives in this zone.
Conversely economic activity declines in relative levels as one gravitates away from this rich agricultural belt into these arid areas. Turkana is literarily at the end of the food chain whereas much of Kajiado borders or is close to Kenya’s agricultural heartland.
While there has been generous lip service paid to the cause of national development nationwide, the reality on the ground is the complete opposite. The more remote the area the more it is likely to have only a skeleton of economic activity and an outpost form of government administration.
Kenya remains a highly unequal country with around 20 per cent of its population accounting for the half the national income at one end and the bottom 20 per cent scratching around with a mere five per cent of the national income.
It is in the same league as the two countries traditionally considered as the most unequal in the world namely Brazil and South Africa and much more unequal than our neighbours Tanzania and Uganda.
As well as the divide between the economically productive areas versus the rest divide there is the unequal access to education, jobs, credit, land and markets which is underpinned by this geographical divide.
Three other dimensions of inequality are between the sexes, the rural urban divide regardless of region and the divide between the formal and informal sectors of activity.
Indeed some of these inequalities have become more entrenched over the years. In 1972 one in four urban Kenyans had formal jobs but by 2008 it was one in eight. The figures are starker in the rural areas with one in 25 having a formal job in 1974 increasing to one in 34 by 2007.
THE STD
Why are there such huge and embarrassing disparities 50 years on?
The first thing to take on board is the contrasting geographical makeup of Kenya. Only a fifth to a quarter of Kenya can be classified as even good or reasonable arable land. The vast majority of Kenya ranges between arid scrubland to desert.The bulk of economic activity has been highly concentrated in this productive agricultural zone giving rise to several major rural urban centres.The majority of the country’s population lives in this zone.
Conversely economic activity declines in relative levels as one gravitates away from this rich agricultural belt into these arid areas. Turkana is literarily at the end of the food chain whereas much of Kajiado borders or is close to Kenya’s agricultural heartland.
While there has been generous lip service paid to the cause of national development nationwide, the reality on the ground is the complete opposite. The more remote the area the more it is likely to have only a skeleton of economic activity and an outpost form of government administration.
Kenya remains a highly unequal country with around 20 per cent of its population accounting for the half the national income at one end and the bottom 20 per cent scratching around with a mere five per cent of the national income.
It is in the same league as the two countries traditionally considered as the most unequal in the world namely Brazil and South Africa and much more unequal than our neighbours Tanzania and Uganda.
As well as the divide between the economically productive areas versus the rest divide there is the unequal access to education, jobs, credit, land and markets which is underpinned by this geographical divide.
Three other dimensions of inequality are between the sexes, the rural urban divide regardless of region and the divide between the formal and informal sectors of activity.
Indeed some of these inequalities have become more entrenched over the years. In 1972 one in four urban Kenyans had formal jobs but by 2008 it was one in eight. The figures are starker in the rural areas with one in 25 having a formal job in 1974 increasing to one in 34 by 2007.
THE STD
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