Kenya

Located in East Africa near the Equator, Kenya has a population of 51.4 million, including 29,700,000 individuals between the ages of 15 and 64 and 7,000,000 children under the age of five.

Samburu County, as well as the entire country, is an area whose development depends mainly on the agricultural sector, with 78% of the population engaged in purely rural activities.

Samburu County is part of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL): this means that the continuously increasing level of aridity of the soil and the scarcity of rainfall gives rise to profound food insecurity. This makes Samburu County one of the poorest in the country, with malnutrition rates of 19.5% among the children under the age of 5.

In addition to widespread poverty, there is also an inefficient access to water and sanitation, the management of which has also become particularly difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These conditions also penalise education, with a resulting literacy level of 34%. Primary education is even more complicated for the female population due to highly harmful cultural practices, such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). About 86% of the female population in Samburu County between the ages of 15 and 49 are victims of these practices.

The county of Wajir is located in the northeastern part of Kenya. As many other counties, the majority of the population is engaged in pastoral activities. Wajir is also part of the ASAL (Arid and Semi-Arid Lands) Counties, characterised by episodes of intense drought alternating with out-of-season disasters, such as the flooding in November 2023.

The significant food insecurity in the county leads the population, especially children, to suffer from severe malnutrition. UNICEF estimates that 48% of the county’s population is affected by malnutrition, with over 30% of children aged 0-5 at risk of acute malnutrition.

In addition to food insecurity, there is widespread material poverty that exacerbates access to various services, especially healthcare and education. Primary education is even more challenging, particularly for the female population, due to forced early-age marriages and practices of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). These practices lead to various health issues, often fatal, affecting 80% of women in the county.