Poverty in Kenya: The number of Kenyans who live in abject poverty has continued to rise. This is after a new report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) announced that over half of all Kenyans are currently living hand to mouth.
The report puts the figure at about 51 per cent of Kenyans, which is a rise from 34.3 per cent who were living hand to mouth in 2016.
According to the 2019 Finances Household Survey released on Wednesday by CBK and FSD, the cost of living has been on an upward trend, triggering a hand to mouth means of survival.
This, despite access to formal financial services and products expanding from 41.3 per cent in 2006 to 82.9 per cent in 2019.
Acting director of research at CBK Raphael Otieno attributed the worsening financial health of households to poor microeconomics, especially a drop in agriculture productivity due to bad climate.
”Kenyans continue to take a beating from a poor climatic condition that continues to take toll on food production. This stretched inflation during the period under review, forcing households to spend more on basic needs,” Otieno said.
The survey on poverty in Kenya sampled 8,669 households across the country, 40 per cent urban and 60 per cent from the rural setting.