Kenya currently is among one of the countries in the world with the fastest growing super-rich individuals. However, only 8,300 individuals representing 0.1 percent of the population are enjoying the fruits of economic growth while the lesser population continue to wallow in poverty.
It is for this reason that Oxfam, an international association of 20 Non-Governmental Organizations focusing on putting an end to poverty injustices, warns that “If inequality remained at the same level for the following five years, 2.9 million more people could be living in extreme poverty.”
This comes shortly after a report by Wealth X placed Kenya at the same position as China in terms of the growth of High Net Worth individuals. With a growing percentage of 9.8 in the next five years, it presents one of the highest in Africa after Nigeria and Egypt.
Read More: Kenya Matches China, World’s 2nd Largest Economy in Millionaire Growth Rate
Oxfam said in a recent report that “While a minority of super-rich Kenyans are accumulating wealth and income, the fruits of economic growth are failing to trickle down to the poorest.
“It appears that a minority of wealthy individuals and investors are creaming off the yields of the country’s economic performance as the gap between the rich and the poor widens in Kenya,” said Oxfam.
Oxfam notes that although Kenya’s economic growth has been consistent for the past 14 years, many are still languishing in poverty.
With the highest growth of millionaires in the country, it has been established that Kenya’s 10 percent population of rich individuals earned 23 times more on average than the poorest 10 percent.
On the contrary, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) says that the number of Kenyans living below the poverty line dropped by 10.5 percent between 2005/6 to 2016.
Oxfam predicts that there is a chance of 80 percent increase of wealthy people in the next 10 years in the country.
What Next?
The reality is that the gap between the rich and the poor will be even greater with many failing to access several needs including access to healthcare and education among other mandatory services that amount to progress in the standards of living.
Oxfam states that on average, a child from a wealthy family in Kenya is bound to twice the amount of education as opposed to a child from a poor family.
The situation paints an undeniable picture in the country, and it is so dire that it pointed out that a girl from poor parents in Kenya has 1 in 250 chances of progressing with her studies beyond secondary school.
In a nutshell, the most hit by the widening gap between the rich and the poor are women and girls.
“Nearly one million primary school-aged children are still out-of-school — the ninth highest number of any country in the world. Kenya’s level of spending on education has gradually fallen each year since the early 2000s,” the report says.
There is plenty of blame to go around including fund misappropriation, failed government projects and myriad cases of corruption cases but the London-based firm points a finger at the government and corporate companies for “exacerbating inequality in the country.”
Oxfam says that the country’s government barely gives the healthcare and education sectors enough money making it a hard-knock life for citizens living below the poverty line.
Better education and healthcare for a country’s citizens are highly dependent on access to money. It is the universal truth. But it would seem like this really has eluded Kenya’s government.
According to Oxfam, a quarter of the Kenyan population regularly lack access to healthcare. A recent study estimated that nearly 2.6 million people fall into poverty or remain poor due to ill health each year.
Corporate tax evasions, says Oxfam, is robing Kenyans 100 billion shillings annually, an amount that doubles what the country spent on health in FY 2015/2016.
World Poverty Clock report released in 2018 indicated that of the 49,684,304 people in Kenya, only 29 percent, that is 14.7 million people, languish in extreme poverty consuming less than 197 shillings a day or 5,910 shillings in a month. This is why it ranked the country as the eighth on the global extreme poverty list.
The report further noted that the perpetual drive to hit the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is not achievable considering the rate at which people are escaping poverty, 0.5 percent.
Africa’s top oil producer
Meanwhile, Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria, is ironically suffering the same fate as Kenya. Incidentally, it would seem like that is the case across several African nations.
Across the globe, the research found that 26 richest people own same wealth as the poorest half of the world population. Looking at sub-Saharan Africa, the rates are rising.
The report showed that Nigeria overtook India in terms of the number of living in extreme poverty.
In Nigeria, 87 million people are in dire financial hardship, that is nearly half the country’s population. World Poverty Clock noted that 6 persons in the country slip into poverty every minute!
At that rate, it was established that between now and 2030, 45.5 percent of the population (120 million) will be living in extreme poverty.
Politicians in the country are busy playing politics instead of helping people out of poverty. Corruption cases are even worse than in Kenya. For decades, the military government has looted public funds and little has been done to amend the situation.
The funny thing is that Nigeria shouldn’t be in the position given that it is Africa’s leading oil producer. It produces two million barrels of crude every day, where does the money go?
Well, Oxfam report indicates that between 1960 and 2005, about 20 trillion US dollars were stolen from the treasury by public office holders.
“The combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest men ($29.9 billion) could end extreme poverty at a national level,” it assessed.
Africa obviously has a lot to learn. Meanwhile, Oxfam recommends increasing taxes on the super-rich and deep cutting reforms that would make quality education and healthcare affordable, if at all inequality is to be rooted out.
READ MORE: Billionaire Fortunes Grew by $2.5 Billion a Day – Oxfam