The current situation in Kenya
The Kenyan state has defined a national development strategy named „Vision2030“ based on the United Nations' Agenda 2030*. Primary goal is to create a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life by 2030*. In 2019, President Kenyatta put his plan to achieve "Vision 2030" into concrete words when he named the "Big Four": Manufacturing (industry), universal health care, affordable housing and food security. Significant improvements are to be achieved here by 2030. How far these visions are from the current living conditions of the population and the development in the country is reported by our colleagues from the project locations: Malindi (coast), Mombasa (big city), Kisumu, Eldoret and Butere (Western Kenya).
Education: Numerous reforms are taking place in the education sector. Our Kenyan partners stress the government's positive efforts to create a triad of teachers, students and parents to involve everyone in the organization of school life. In doing so, child labour and neglect are to be curbed.
Our partners note with concern that the introduction of free primary education up to grade 8 has led to many schools being neglected. As the schools do not receive any state support and only the teachers' salaries are covered by the state, no maintenance measures are carried out. The school classes are overcrowded, with up to 200 pupils sitting in one room. There are not enough school benches and too few toilets for the children. In 2019, the government set a toilet key that specifies how many toilets must be available for students and teachers, if this key is not met, the school is threatened to be closed. However, the schools have no money to build toilets. Therefore, more and more "hidden" costs are passed on to the students, such as "administration fees", "school bench rent", "school meals". These costs are on top of the purchase of school uniforms, school materials and shoes. The SOLWODI target group cannot afford these costs because they often earn less than $1.90 per day and their income usually covers rent and food only.
Climate change and economics: In early 2019 it was extremly dry and hot. Until March there was not enough rain to start farming. Many people walk long distances with their animals in search of pasture and water. 1.1 million people were classified as affected by "food insecurity" in 2019 and 834,900 people were classified as severely affected. Serious malnutrition has been reported in children under five and pregnant women, with numbers rising. The government provided emergency packages of food and water for the most severely affected groups. But here too, these developments are leading to conflicts and violence, which have a particularly serious impact on women and girls. In October, there was heavy rainfall, which quickly led to flooding due to the previous drought. Harvests and houses were destroyed and many people were left homeless.
Impacts on the target group of SOLWODI in Kenya:
The high cost of living, partly due to loss of harvests, has increasingly led to child marriages, child prostitution and dropping out of school.
High unemployment accounts for the rising number of sexual assaults. Women who cannot generate income and have to live in poverty prostitution are easy victims. There are also more and more cases of gender-based violence. The development of men killing themselves and their entire family or specifically killing partners or children is viewed with great anxiety. Juvenile delinquency is also on the rise. All these developments receive little social attention, they rarely appear in the media, and the police are taking hardly any action. There are few education and prevention programmes.
This is why it is particularly important to continue to support NGOs such as those of our partners in Kenya, because all these developments are increasingly leading to poorer social conditions, which particularly affect children and women and subject them to ever greater discrimination.
* The Agenda 2030 was approved by all member states at a United Nations summit in September 2015. The Agenda 2030 applies to all states of the world. Developing countries, emerging economies and industrialised countries: [...] The core of the Agenda is an ambitious catalogue with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For the first time, the 17 SDGs take all three dimensions of sustainability - social, environmental and economic - simultaneously into account. Source: http://www.bmz.de/de/themen/2030_agenda/index.html 4 http://kenyaembassyberlin.de/Die-Kenianische-Wirtschaft.36.0.html?&L=1 (accessed on 08.01
