The Influence of Socio-economic Factors and Poor Governance on Poverty Reduction in Kenya: a Case of Kangemi Slum in Westlands, Nairobi

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to establish the main impediments to poverty reduction in Kenya with a case of Kangemi slum in Nairobi. The main problem is that although poverty has been identified as a major cause of inequality in the country and several interventions put in place, no much progress has been reported. It has been the responsibility of the successive governments to ensure equality amongst citizens and every effort has not been spared to address this but there still seems the war on this is insurmountable and has been quite a challenge. A look through earlier studies on the same conforms to the results of this study especially when one looks at basic social amenities like education, medical care and water. Several targets have been set in the past like providing education for all but it has not been a easy as most of the time we reach the target year and realize we have yet again missed it. This has been true for medical care and water as the government has always promised free medical care and access to clean drinking water by certain periods and failed to achieve. In this study, only primary data which was mainly quantitative was used. To achieve this, a semistructured questionnaire was administered to interviewees who were selected from a list of qualified respondents. The data achieved was cleaned and entered into the computer and by use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software analysis was done to generate the results. It is from the results that this report was written. From the results several issues came up key among them was that the war on poverty has been hampered mainly by poor governance and unemployment. That majority of the interventions which have been put in place get other considerations especially those which are political came out clearly. Corruption and unaccountable leadership epitomize the poor management of the resources mobilized for the fight against poverty. The recommendations from the respondents were many including accountable leadership, creation of employment and provision of social amenities like education and medical care. Tile study also recommends further research to complement this one and many more as the war on poverty goes on.