Child labour is widely practised in Kenya. There may be as many as 5 million children in work. The children are mainly employed in family farms to take care of livestock.
Primary education faces challenges such as large numbers in classrooms, inadequate facilities in schools and shortage of teachers. Lack of quality education is one of the main reasons for high drop out rates.
The Stop Child Labour Africa Tour will round up in Kenya, November 1-6.
Eric Van Der Linden, Ambassador of the European Commission to the Republic of Kenya, will preside the Leadership Forum on the 5th of November.
Check the Africa Tour reporters' weblog on Kenya!| Official name: | Jamhuri ya Kenya (Swahili); Republic of Kenya (English) |
| Form of government: | unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house |
Head of state:
| President Mwai KIBAKI (since 30 December 2002); Vice President Stephene Kalonzo MUSYOKA (since 10 January 2008) |
| Head of government: | Prime Minister Raila Amolo ODINGA (since 17 April 2008)
Cabinet appointed by the president
|
| Capital: | Nairobi |
Official languages:
| Swahili; English |
| Monetary unit: | Kenyan shilling (K Sh) |
| Population estimate: | 37,953,838 (2008 est) |
(Source: CIA world fact book)Age structure:0-14 years: 42.2% (male 8,065,789/female 7,953,077)
15-64 years: 55.2% (male 10,498,468/female 10,434,764)
65 years and over: 2.6% (male 457,886/female 543,854)
(2008 est.) Median age:Total: 18.6 years
male: 18.5 years
female: 18.8 years
(2008 est.)Languages:English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages
Literacy:Definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 85.1%
male: 90.6%
female: 79.7%
(2003 est.)GDP - per capita (PPP):$1,700
(2007 est.) GDP - composition by sector:
Agriculture: 23.8%
industry: 16.7%
services: 59.5%
(2007 est.) Labour force:11.85 million
(2005 est.)
Labour force - by occupation:
Agriculture: 75%
industry and services: 25%
(2003 est.)Population below poverty line:50%
(2000 est.)
Child labour (5-14 years, 1999-2004):Total 26%
Male 27%
Female 25%
(source: UNICEF, 2006)
Ratified Conventions ILO:
138 on Minimum Working Age
182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour
Primary school enrolment (%):Male 66%
Female 66%
(Source: UNICEF 2006)
Secondary school enrolment (%):
Male 25%
Female 24%
(Source: UNICEF 2006)
Education expenditures - percent of GDP:
6.9% (2006)
Agriculture - products:
Tea, coffee, corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruit, vegetables; dairy products, beef, pork, poultry, eggs
Industries:
Small-scale consumer goods (plastic, furniture, batteries, textiles, clothing, soap, cigarettes, flour), agricultural products, horticulture, oil refining; aluminium, steel, lead; cement, commercial ship repair, tourism
Geography:
The Kenyan Highlands comprise one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa; glaciers are found on Mount Kenya, Africa's second highest peak; unique physical environment supports abundant and varied wildlife of scientific and economic value.
Founding president and liberation struggle icon Jomo KENYATTA led Kenya from independence in 1963 until his death in 1978, when President Daniel Toroitich arap MOI took power in a constitutional succession.
President MOI stepped down in December 2002 following fair and peaceful elections. Mwai KIBAKI assumed the presidency following a campaign centred on an anticorruption platform.
KIBAKI's re-election in December 2007 brought charges of vote rigging from ODM candidate Raila ODINGA and unleashed two months of violence in which as many as 1,500 people died. UN-sponsored talks in late February produced a power sharing accord bringing ODINGA into the government in the restored position of prime minister.
Corruption
The regional hub for trade and finance in East Africa, Kenya has been hampered by corruption and by reliance upon several primary goods whose prices have remained low.
Failure
In 1997, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended Kenya's Enhanced Structural Adjustment Program due to the government's failure to maintain reforms and curb corruption.
Graft scandals
In the key December 2002 elections, Daniel Arap MOI's 24-year-old reign ended, and a new opposition government took on the formidable economic problems facing the nation. After some early progress in rooting out corruption and encouraging donor support, the KIBAKI government was rocked by high-level graft scandals in 2005 and 2006.
Growth
In 2006 the World Bank and IMF delayed loans pending action by the government on corruption. The international financial institutions and donors have since resumed lending, despite little action on the government's part to deal with corruption. The scandals have not weighed down growth, with estimated real GDP growth at more than 6 percent in 2007.
Figures
Child labour is widely practised in Kenya. There are at least 1.9 million children in work. About 1.3 million work fulltime and about 600,000 are working and attending school. These figures are most probably understated and there may be as many as 5 million children in work.
Sectors
The children are mainly employed in family farms to take care of livestock. They also work in the commercial agricultural sector, in coffee and tea plantations. Furthermore children are found to work in export industries like textiles, clothing, and footwear. Children also work to pay off debts and are involved in forced labour. In addition, millions of others toil in private homes as domestic workers. This is the most widespread form of child exploitation.
Causes
The common causes are lack of education, children's refusal to attend schools, home background whereby some parents encourage their children to do odd jobs to cater for their needs. Young girls who are forced into early marriages have to work to fend for themselves.
In cases where both parents are dead, the orphans usually lack some support which is vital in their upbringing, so they end up doing jobs while they are still very young in order to survive. Adult unemployment means parents can’t support their families also leads to an increase in child labour. Children who are abandoned by their parents have to work to cater for their basic needs (iEARN Fight Against Child Labour Project, 2005).
HIV & AIDS
A failing economy and HIV & Aids are contributing to an annual increase of 20% in the number of homeless children. 300,000 children live and work on the streets in the country’s urban areas, Nairobi and Mombassa.
These children find themselves in a very vulnerable situation. Most of them are abused, neglected, exposed to criminal and gang activities, drug and substance abuse, HIV & AIDS infection and generally suffer poor health due to their lifestyles.
Child prostitution
Child prostitution is a major problem in Nairobi and Mombassa where it is connected to the tourist industry. Some male and female child prostitutes are as young as 8 years old.
Free schooling
Primary education has witnessed phenomenal growth since the NARC government introduced free schooling in 2003. The number of primary school pupils rose dramatically, from 5.9 million in 2002 to about 7.6 million in 2005.
New challenges
However, this increase in enrollment rate brought in some new challenges such as large numbers in classrooms, inadequate facilities in schools and shortage of teachers. The teacher shortage jumped from 22,000 in 2002 to 60,000 in 2005.
About 2 million school-aged children are not at school. Lack of quality education is one of the main reasons for high drop out rates. Adult male illiteracy is still about 12% and adult female illiteracy about 26%.
