52% of Kenyans at risk of sliding into poverty

A new report from the World Bank Group now shows that 52 percent of Kenyans are now at the risk of falling into the net of poverty within the next two years, should material reforms to accelerate the reduction of poverty fail to gather steam.

While the risk of poverty has reduced substantively from a higher 63 percent a decade ago, economists at the World Bank call for more urgent measures to bring down the number of those languishing in poverty.

Among their key recommendations is the raising of incomes to Kenyans through more direct means, through increased government spending in social protection programs.

The report further says that counties in the former North Eastern province are far worse than the national poverty average.

This comes just days after the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) announced the notable rise in the consumer price index (CPI).

This they said was as a result of the significant increase of key foodstuffs which outweighed recorded decreases.

Unga prices for instance rose by 4.3 percent month on month to keep with the observed hike of 5.8 percent in October.

Other commodity price increments were observed in the pricing of Irish potatoes, tomatoes and mineral water with the latter seeing costs rise from the implementation of the Excisable Goods Management System (EGMS) to outweigh decreases in the cost of milk and sugar.

Midway through November, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) impacted increments to fuel prices across the board by an average Ksh.2.72 to impact both energy and transport costs during the month.

As such, the housing and transport index which accounts for a combined weight total of 27 percent of the house-hold consumption basket rose by 0.3 points as rent and cooking costs surged forward from October.