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Social Justice

In what ways does a godly presence in a society lead to social justices?

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Reflection: Hunger in Kenya

WCIU Journal: Social Justice Topic

October 6, 2014

Christopher Brittain is a WCIU MA student, and a mobilizer of biblical cross-cultural workers, based in Kenya. He and his wife are passionate to see every believer mobilized to participate effectively with God in his redemptive purpose.

Christopher Brittain is a WCIU MA student, and a mobilizer of biblical cross-cultural workers, based in Kenya. He and his wife are passionate to see every believer mobilized to participate effectively with God in his redemptive purpose.

According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, Kenya is classified has having a “serious” hunger problem. They report that
• Kenya is not on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal related to undernutrition, and between January and May 2011, admissions to hospitals and community centers in Nairobi increased by 62 percent for treatment of severe acute malnutrition in young children.
• Poor families often spend between 40-60% of their household income on food, and even minor fluctuations in food prices can have major impacts on household consumption and well-being.
• Between February 2010 and May 2011 in Kenya, month-to-month price changes at the national wholesale level ranged from zero to 20 percent for maize, and from zero to 42 percent for beans.
See this online country profile with statistics other about Kenya.

The United Nations Development Program UNDP uses the Human Development Index (HDI) as a measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development:
1. A long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. As in the 2011 HDR a long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy.
2. Access to knowledge is measured by: i) mean years of schooling for the adult population, and ii) expected years of schooling for children of school-entrance age.
3. Standard of living is measured by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita expressed in constant 2005 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) rates.

According to the UNDP Human Development Report 2013 Kenya’s HDI value for 2012 is 0.519—in the low human development category—positioning the country at 145 out of 187 countries and territories. 

What is the responsibility of believers in Kenya for doing something about this poor quality of life?

Editorpoor, poverty, Africa, hungerComment