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Sunday Times

http://www.timesnews.co.ke/29april07/editorials/edtorial1.html

Scepticism on poverty drop understandable

The findings of the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey, which shows that poverty levels have declined from 56.8 per cent in 2000 to 46 per cent in 2005 ought to be good news for the country. But Kenyans seem to be unsure whether their lives have changed for the better over the years with many citing high rates of unemployment and runaway cost of basic commodities like sugar and flour, which flies in the face of the report released on Thursday.

Though the Government has been basking in the glory on unprecedented economic growth rate of six per cent since President Mwai Kibaki came to power, Kenyans have agreed that majority of them are yet to experience tangible benefits of such growth. The improved living standards indicated by the findings are only concentrated in urban areas which accommodate less number of Kenyans as compared to rural areas where majority poor live.

And this is where statistics always mislead. Because of their average nature of looking at issues, it would be ill advised for Government functionaries to hype the figures in explaining the performance of the regime since figures alone cannot change things.

Today, there still exist a huge gap between the rich and the poor with a greater percentage of national wealth being controlled by few Kenyans. The task that the Government must accomplish then is ensuring equitable distribution of national resources to bridge the glaring economic disparities among Kenyans.

What is required is a deliberate effort by the Government to uplift the living standards of the majority poor across the country through affirmative action, tailored to respond to peculiar needs of every sector of the economy and region.

It is encouraging that the benefits of devolved funds like the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Constituency HIV/AIDS Fund, Local Authorities Transfer Fund (LATF) and the District Roads Fund are already being felt on the ground and the Government needs to vote more money for the kitties in the next financial year.

This is a clear indication that the country can do better through devolution as citizens get opportunity to prioritise needs of their regions and implement them through inclusive participation.

We also want to believe that the Integrated Household Budget Survey conducted for a year at a cost of Sh620 million is not a political gimmick by President Kibaki’s administration to woo votes for his re-election bid. Only two months ago, a survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) showed that more than half the population of the country was languishing in abject poverty, which the Government survey contradicts.

This calls for a critical interrogation of the findings to verify their validity so that the data generated can be implemented to improve the lives of majority Kenyans who are still entangled in poverty.

The findings of the survey should not be used for political expediency by the Government as it is pre-emptive to pop champagne bottles over growing economies which only benefit the minority.