Kenya - Some Facts
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Population: 32,829,590 (UN, 2005 estimate) Approximately 3,000,000 living in Nairobi
Capital: Nairobi (55% of population lives on 1.5% of the land)
Area: 582,646 sq km (224,961 sq miles) (About the size of Texas)
Language: English (taught in school, spoken by the educated) Swahili and other tribal languages
Religions: Christian - Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%, indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2%
Age structure: 0-14 years: 41.1% (male 6,462,430; female 6,327,457); 15-64 years: 56.1% (male 8,769,546; female 8,694,329); 65 years and over: 2.8% (male 385,361; female 499,612) (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 27.61 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 14.68 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 67.24 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population - 47.02 years
People living with HIV/AIDS: 1.2 million (2003 estimate)
HIV/AIDS adult prevalence: 15%
Monetary unit: 1 Kenya shilling = 100 cents (approximately 70 shillings equal 1 US dollar)
Main exports: Tea, coffee, horticultural products, petroleum products
GNI per capita: US $460 (World Bank, 2005)
Children, aged 0-5 years form about 20% of the total population and are highly susceptible to infections and other environmental hazards. Many children of this age have also been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Many turn to the streets and to a life of hardships.
The Children - Some Facts
- In 1997 there was an estimated 60,000 street children in Nairobi (growing at 10% per year… 88,000 in 2001). Daily Nation, 1997
- 6 in every 10 boys living on the streets have health problems associated with taking drugs. Undugu Society of Kenya
- Numerous and complex socio-economic factors have fueled the rising presence of children on the streets, including, but not limited to:
- rapid urbanization and the breakdown of traditional support structures of the African extended family;
- the increasingly difficult circumstances of women as heads of single-parent households; the inability of parents to pay uniform and book fees, and other costs of public education;
- the displacement of large numbers of people in urban slum clearance operations, sometimes leaving families homeless overnight;
- in recent years, the internal displacement of an estimated 300,000 people, including a high percentage of children, from state-sponsored "ethnic" violence in the west and Rift Valley of Kenya. Human Rights Watch 1997