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| Livelihood Systems of Western Kenya |
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The main livelihood systems of western Kenya are subsistence farming, petty trading, agricultural wage labour and fishing. The average household size is seven persons. The cropping system is over 70% mixed. Agriculture is the main source of livelihoods. Labour is mainly allocated to crop enterprises, with household heads allocating > 50% of their labour to it. Maize (Zea mays) and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are the most important staple/traded food crops. Poultry, followed by cattle dominated livestock enterprises. Few households diversify into small businesses, employment and artisan to enhance livelihoods. Despite this, 5 – 95% of people remain food insecure. Lack of cash and limited land access are the most important factors constraining agricultural development. Although, most households preferred sell produce in markets where prices are better, many not only sell produce but purchase inputs from nearest towns due to high costs of accessing better price markets. Wealth inequality among households is very high, with household wealth Gini-coefficient of 0.52 and per capita wealth Gini-coefficient of 0.55, calling for better interventions targeting to reach most vulnerable/marginal groups and create all-inclusive opportunities. (African Journal of Agricultural Research Vol. 3 (7), pp. 455-464, July 2008). Despite recent increases in mortality rates due to AIDS, the absolute number of rural people continues to grow, in large part due to the dismal performance of the urban employment sector. As a result of this population growth, farm sizes are nowadays small to very small, averaging between 0.5 to 1 hectare per household, across different sites (Wangila et al., 1999; Mango, 2002; Francis, 2000). The history of farming in Kenya’s western region is characterized by low external inputs with low output farming, based mainly on maize and beans. Recent studies have found that crop productivity is generally very low (less than 1 ton of maize per hectare per year and that land is highly depleted of nutrients (Stoorvogel & Smaling, 1990). This in turn has led to situations whereby members of many households, often the male, would seek income earning opportunities off the farm. Labor migration often implies the withdrawal of labor, further reducing agricultural productivity. Where the migrant is employed in a low paying job, which is common because many are low-skilled jobs, few remittances are returned to the rural area and this once again inhibits investment in agriculture. The somber result of these conditions is a staggering rate of rural poverty in the region. The poverty line was determined by the Government of Kenya (GoK) to be 1,240 ksh per person per month (at the time, this was equivalent to $0.60 per day). Rural-to-urban migration, along with the breakup of households due to deaths and divorce, has resulted in approximately 35% of rural household being headed by women. These female-headed households constitute (53%) of all households living in absolute poverty, nationally. The headquarters of CULINKE is in Kisumu which covers most of Kenya’s pride, the great Lake Victoria. Because of the Lake, it is expected that the province and its inhabitants to be better off in their socio-economic status as a direct benefit from the lake's major natural resource, fish. The fish industry on Kenya's side of the lake was in the mid-1990 earning the country about 300 – 400 million US dollars annually. But the situation is totally different. Nyanza is an area that is dogged with a number of socio-economic problems such poverty, malaria and a very high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS. The Province covers 15979 km² of Kenya’s part of the Lake Victoria shoreline. Two other East African countries, Uganda and Tanzania, also share the world’s second largest fresh water. Poverty in the Lake Victoria basin is manifested through the area’s high prevalence rate (20 percent) of HIV/AIDS and people’s vulnerability to other diseases like malaria according to ICRAF’s David Nyantika. Lack of people’s access to credit/loan facilities and information on crop marketing systems are some of the factors that are impeding people in Nyanza to realise maximum potential from their farming according to ICRAF’s findings in its 1999 research project called the Land Improvement and Management in the Lake Victoria Basin. On the 11th of February 2005, the government released a report “Geographic Dimensions of Well -Being in Kenya; Who and Where are the Poor?” which further put 5 Nyanza constituencies out of 9 of the poorest in the country in this order- Ganze is followed by Kitui South, Kaloleni, Kinango, Bonchari-Nyanza, Kasipul Kabondo-Nyanza, Kuria-Nyanza, Ndhiwa-Nyanza and Rangwe-Nyanza. The report revealed that Nyanza had 2.7 million and Western 2 million poor respectively, overall Nyanza had poverty levels of 65% as the poorest province followed by followed by North Eastern with 64 per cent. Western has 61 per cent, Eastern 58 per cent, Coast 57.6 per cent, Rift Valley 48 per cent, Nairobi 44 per cent and Central just 31 per cent. And in a 2006 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report on Kenya is stated that a person born in Nyanza province can expect to live 16 years less than his counterpart in Central. The report further acknowledges that chronic poverty is found in North-Eastern, Coast, Western and Nyanza provinces. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) further confirms in a report on Tuesday February 27th 2007, that Nyanza and Western provinces belong to the poorest regions in Kenya. In a Constituency Report on Well-Being, prepared by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics based on the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey of 2005/6 and posted on the Nation Newspaper website on the 29 August 2008, contested by MPs as doctored by the government, poverty incidence in Nyanza province was reported to stand at 46.5 %. Western Province was given a total number of 2.3 million poor people, more than half the region's population of 4.3 million. Poverty incidence here reported at 53.1 % in 2005/6. According to the report Vihiga constituency accounts for 1.8 per cent of the poor in the area, the highest contributors to poverty being Kimilili (7.1 per cent), Amagoro (6.4 per cent), Nambale (6.3 per cent), Mt Elgon (5.8 per cent), Lugari (5.6 per cent), Sirisia (5.5 per cent), Lurambi (5.3 per cent) and Webuye (5.2 per cent). |
POVERTY
Poverty Reduction
Poverty is malnourishment. Poverty is homelessness. Poverty is inability to access medical care. Poverty is lack of an informed mind, lack of basic general knowledge and basic literacy skills. Poverty is lack of savings and inaccessibility to credit…living from hand to mouth by the day …merely existing, scraping through life, groping for a meaningful co-existence with others, including nature.COMMUNITY
Community Services
This programme is takes care of the Social Development Goals of the MGDs. CULINKE acknowledges that economic growth is essential for poverty reduction, but it is not sufficient. Growth must be accompanied by measures that ensure its benefits reach all segments of the population.HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS
Of great concern to CULINKE is the effect of HIV and AIDS on the productive life of the people. HIV and AIDS induces and deepens poverty. The scourge has emerged as a cause of poverty and is officially recognized as a threat to development in Kenya.ICT
Information & Communication Technology
The Department of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is youth-led and inspired. The department is a part of the social entrepreneurial and sustainability efforts to CULINKE. Under the youth it is referred to as Youth Employment for Poverty Reduction through ICT Services and Resource Centres.HEALTH
Health & Medical Services
Disease is one of the main reasons that stand in the way of the efforts of the people of developing countries trying to overcome poverty. Poverty accelerates the spread of disease and the spread of disease aggravates poverty, creating a vicious cycle. There is a fundamental relationship between health deficits and poverty.AGRICULTURE
AGRICULTURE
Orphanhood, HIV/AIDS and cultural norms like gender discrimination harm agriculture leading to debilitating hunger and extreme poverty. Families scratch out an existence that is brutally difficult, living on the edge of survival and often falling off the edge, leaving them sick and unable to afford medical care.
