Causes and ways of curbing poverty in Kenya

  

Date Posted: 11/11/2011 12:02:27 PM

Posted By: Wishstar  Membership Level: Gold  Total Points: 7507

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More than 40% of Kenya''s population are living below the poverty line, that is below one dollar a day. This means that they are absolutely poor. They cannot afford resources to maintain their lives and almost all of their income is spent on food. Some people have landed into the poverty trap in that they are unable to improve their income because they depend on state benefits that are induced as earnings increase.

People may be poor due to a number of reasons. Some of the causes of poverty include;

1. Unemployment

This has of late been a major problem in our country. Most of the youth are unemployed and just happen to survive by the will of good Samaritans. This situation has been made worse by the activities that our political leader are involved in. For instance, where did the money for kazi kwa vijana go?

2. High levels of illiteracy.

This is another hindrance for people to break out of poverty. When one does not acquire basic education he/she may not think of appropriate methods in which he/she can be able to generate income so that he can break out of poverty.

3. Political instability.

The effect of political instability was seen during the post election violence. It left many people homeless and due to this, they became poor. Most could not afford basic needs as their source of income was completely destroyed.

4. High population growth rate.

When the rate of population growth is not controlled, then the resources available would not be able to satisfy all of the population. The resources would become scarce and more scarce and people may start destroying natural resources as was seen in the Mau forest.

5. Rampant corruption.

People in authority may start mismanaging resources and this may have adverse effects to the citizens as the resources that may have been

used in development have been used by greedy people for their own personal gain.

In order to curb poverty, some of this measures might help a lot.

1. Controlling birth rate. This may be done by practicing family planning hence be able to regulate the population to manageable levels.

2. Entrepreneurship practice.

3. Improvement in foreign investments.

4. Proper and efficient use of natural resources.

5. Provision of employment opportunities.

6. Attaining political stability in the country. This may also have the effect of luring investors into the country hence increasing development.

7. Industrialization

8. Using proper environmental management strategies.

Everyone has a right to basic needs, that is food, shelter, clothing and education. Poverty deprives people some of these and hence a lot of effort should be put in place to eradicate absolute and mass poverty.

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