Sociological Implications Of Poverty In Kenya

INTRODUCTION

One of the most prevalent issues in the world today is poverty. This social problem does not just affect one part of the world alone and there are empirical evidences of its existence in every country. Poverty is described as individuals who are extremely poor. They lack basic forms of necessities like food, water, housing and so on. When discussing poverty, we should note that it can be categorised into two; absolute and relative poverty. The former is the more prominent problem that affects the larger portion of the world today such as in sub-saharan Africa. Environmental factors such as war or natural disasters like drought wipes out resources that are considered principal in human lives such as clean water and food which causes

Kenya evidently faces a serious problem of the majority of its people living in poverty as the country is ranked sixth among top 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa on the extreme poverty index [Karanja, 2015]. According to research, around half of the population earn less than $1 US each day (the annual GDP per capita is around $360 US) [SoftKenya, 2017]. In 1992, approximately 9 million rural Kenyans were living below the poverty line while in the urban centers, only about a third of the population is affected [SoftKenya, 2017]. As such, this essay will focus on the problem of poverty, notably, in rural areas of

This accentuates the problem of poverty linked to the lack of human capital caused by education.

Adding on, the problem of accessibility can also be seen in the geographical lens whereby those living in the rural have a much lower rate of attending school. This potrays the marginalised poor from gaining access to education. For instance, in 2008, in Nairobi, almost all children from rich households had been to school, whether boy or girl. However, this data is different for the poor as 55% of girls and 43% of boys living in the North-East had never been to school [UNESCO, 2012]. This is mainly due to the fact that schools were situated more in the urban areas than rural areas. According to Onyango (2013),

Regional differences in school participation in Kenya have historically been influenced by regional inequality in economic development. Distinct disparities evident today can be traced to decisions made by missionaries and the colonial administration who established formal Western education in Kenya in the first half of the 20th century. Their decisions favored areas of the country where ideal climatic conditions and agricultural potential resulted in a greater concentration of