Kenya and the Millenium Goals

There has been a lot on the BBC world news about Africa and the UN millenium goals, progress against these goals has been reviewed at the UN this week in Washington. Here in East Africa Tanzania has done well for primary education, Uganda has done well with Aids, however Kenya is struggling against these targets as it is poorer now than it was.
In Kenya the period from the 1980s to 2000 is typified by declining growth with significant losses in social welfare, notably escalating poverty, deteriorating standards of living and falling life expectancy. In real terms economic growth(GDP) averaged 8% during 1963-72, the rate declined to 4.8% during 1973-1982. It then declined to 3.5% between 1983 and 1994. Economic performance in the 1990s and beginning of 2000 continued to be very poor. It was 2.3% in 1997, 1.8% in 1998, 1.4% in 1999 and only 0.4% in 2000. This downward trend has slowly started to reverse, being 1.85 % in 2003/5 and rising to 2.4% in 2004.
As economic growth declined, development partner assistance also fell from a high of US$1.4 billion in 1990 to US$ 419 million in 2002
The gradual decline in economic growth led to increased poverty over the past two decades. The number of absolute poor (less than one US dollar a day) people increased from 3.7 million in 1973, to 11.5 million in 1994, to 12.5 million in 1997. It is estimated that Kenya’s poor exceeded 15 million in 2002 - more than 50 percent of the country’s population. In rural areas, where the majority of the population live, poverty levels rose from about 48 percent in 1990 to 53 percent in 1997. Likewise, urban poverty incidence rose from 29.4 percent in 1992 to 49.2 percent in 1997.
Talking about urban poverty, Kibira is a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, one million people live there, many of them very young. I visited Kibira and went to the house of Fidousa and her Mother. (see photo - if I work out how to publish this). Firdousa is a high school graduate and has attended training courses in computer studies and accountancy. Like many here she cannot get a job. She spent 6 months queuing almost daily to get a passport hoping that she might get to USA, but it is almost impossible to get a visa. The homes here are built in rows with a narrow rutted mud alley between. They are made of mud on wood frames made from branches, the roofs are corrugated steel sheets and the floors are hard earth. The windows are curtains and the doors are usually wood in wooden frames. There is no running water, water is collected from standpipes in each street and toilets are pit in tiny hut near each group of houses. A web of electric wires straggle across the houses and provide one electric light in each home and power for the ubiquitous TV. Cooking is on charcole using a jika (small circular metal enclosure sitting on the floor. The women seem to spend all their time bent double as they reach down to cook. Firdousa's mother proudly made me a cup of tea. I took some photos and promised to send them.
I will publish more of these insights into Kenyan life.