Employment vs Population in Kenya

I investigated Kenya’s rural versus urban life. According to the CIA World Factbook about 80% of the population lives in rural areas as of 2008. However, from WHO I was able to obtain that only 58% live in rural areas. Even though these statistics are off, the numbers are still both very large. We can say that less than half of the population live in cities, while the rest live elsewhere. Of the 30 million people in Kenya about 23% are below the poverty line of earning one dollar a day as mentioned in WHO. From the textbook I was able to see that there is a 45% unemployment rate. From all of these facts I was able to derive that less than half lived in the cities, meaning that they were a bit well off in their lifestyles, while the other plus 50% were not doing so well and living in rural areas. Also from the 23% below poverty border percentage I was able to conclude that even the people that are employed (55%) a bit less than half is not earning enough money to maintain themselves. Over all I conclude that there is a little bit of people that are fine in Kenya, but over one half of the population are squalors.

Education in Kenya

Kenya has had a variety of results from the colonialism of European settlers. There is a 45% unemployment rate and 20% of the population is living below the poverty line. Kenya has one of the highest rate of population growth rates in the world. The problems are only worsened by fighting between ethnic groups and fragile political stability. So I was quite surprised when I found the following statistics. The adult literacy rate is 73.6 % compared with the 60.1 of the rest of Africa. And there is a 66% enrollment ration for primary school. Not only was this surprising because both young boys and girls have an equal enrollment rate in school, but how the education seems so prominent in a country with so much poverty and unemployment. However, unlike many other African countries, Kenya welcomed the Europeans, who brought over foreign investment and profit incentives. While many are unemployed and six of the thirty million people are squatters, the strong presence of the West provides a good explanation for the impressive educational statistics in Africa.