Country background

Kenya has experienced an economic decline for the last 20 years. This has impacted negatively on the country's health, economy, education and other social services. It has damaged the infrastructure, food security and eroded traditional values and the cultural coping mechanisms. According to the Government of Kenya and UNICEF mid-term Review Report on their country program of cooperation 1999-2003, the national economy has experienced persistent shocks as a result of declining world market prices. In 2000, the Kenyan economy recorded a negative 0.3% growth rate. An estimated 56% of the Kenyan population now live below the poverty line and are largely unable to afford basic services including education, health, food and shelter. Of this number there are an estimated 8.6 million children living in poverty.

According to the same Report, some 14 million people are currently unemployed, with about 750,000 entering the job market every year. As the economy is only able to create 250,000-330,000 jobs annually, mostly in the jua-kali (informal) sector, employment opportunities shrink by the day. Many factories and businesses have also closed down or relocated to other countries due to the high cost of doing business in Kenya and competition from cheap imported products.

Impact of HIV/AIDS

The problem of the declining economy has been compounded by the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is the biggest calamity of our time. AIDS has been killing 700 Kenyans a day. By December 2001, 1.5 Million people had died of AIDS in Kenya with an estimate of deaths due to AIDS as 2.6 Million by the end of 2005. Most people dying of AIDS are 15-49 years so the country is losing its productive labour force as well as having to face the social and emotional impact.

As the people who are dying are in their prime reproductive age many have young children. The number of orphans, especially those who have been orphaned as a result of AIDS, is growing rapidly. According to a report, Children on the Brink 2002, compiled by UNAIDS, UNICEF and USAID, there were an estimated 1,659,000 orphans in Kenya in 2001 out of which 892,000 were orphans due to Aids. The report estimated Kenya would have about 1.920,000 orphans by the year 2005 out of which 1,265,000 would be due to AIDS.

The widespread and high levels of poverty present a major and disabling handicap to the well being and the welfare of children in Kenya. Children from poor families suffer from lack of access to basic human needs such as food, water and shelter as well as basic social services such as education, health care sanitation. Because of AIDS many children have no parents to support them. Instead the children are forced to fend for themselves at a very young age and for their siblings. Many of these children are HIV positive.

Thika District

Thika District, Kenya has a population of approximately 300,000 people. It was once Kenya's industrial heartland with vast coffee and pineapple plantations and many other industries. The collapse of the Kenyan coffee market in the 1990s and economic hardship hit the area hard, causing high unemployment and poverty. The slum area of Kiandutu developed and it now holds many of the area's problems, not least a generation of children growing up on the streets.