Demographic Patterns of Socio-Economic Needs in Kenya: Informing Public Resource Allocation Criteria in Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/aje.3006Keywords:
Deprivation, Resource Allocation, Social Welfare Criterion, KenyaAbstract
Purpose: This paper analyzes multi-dimensional deprivation in Kenya.
Methodology: The analyses is carried out within a principal component analysis framework. This analysis is based on data drawn from the 2019 Population and Housing Census and employs counties in Kenya as the unit of analysis.
Findings: Multi-dimensional deprivation in Kenya is high with 53 per cent of the population being multi-dimensionally deprived. There is widespread cross-county variation in deprivation with 29 (out of 47) counties facing major to extreme forms of deprivation. Counties experiencing the worst deprivations are within the arid and semi-arid lands. Observed heterogeneity in cross-county deprivations is largely driven by deprivations related to access to safe drinking water, electricity, garbage collection, and human waste collection which jointly account for 93 per cent of the total variance. Variation in deprivation to formal education explains less than 1 per cent of the total variance, reflecting near-universal access to education in Kenya.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice, and Policy: These results have important ramifications for policy on resource allocation. In particular, resource allocation formula which enhances social welfare in Kenya has to attach great importance to water, energy, garbage collection, and human waste collection while maintaining the current levels of access to education.
Downloads
References
Akoteyon, I. S., Aliu, I. R., & Soladoye, O. (2021). Household levels of deprivation to WaSH and residential conditions in slum settlements of Lagos, Nigeria. Journal of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for Development, 11(1), 60-74.
Allain, M. L., Boyer, M., Kotchoni, R., & Ponssard, J. P. (2015). Are cartel fines optimal? Theory and evidence from the European Union. International Review of Law and Economics, 42, 38-47.
Barroy, H., & Gupta, S. (2020). From overall fiscal to budgetary space for health: connecting public financial management to resource mobilization in the era of COVID-19.
Becker, G. (2017). A Theory of the Allocation of Time. Journal of Economic Studies (34): pp. 493–517. September
Bocquet-Appel, J., & Naji, S. (2016). Testing the hypothesis of a worldwide Neolithic demographic transition: corroboration from American cemeteries. Current Anthropology, 47(2), 341-365.
Cannan, E. (1924). Alfred Marshall 1842-1924.
Cannan, E. (2019) A Review of Economic Theory. London: Frank Cass.
Carrington, D. (2018). 'Collapse of civilization is a near certainty within decades. The Guardian. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
Chamboko, R., & Guvuriro, S. (2021). The role of betting on digital credit repayment, coping mechanisms and welfare outcomes: evidence from Kenya. International Journal of Financial Studies, 9(1), 10.
Chiappori, Pierre-André (2019). Rational Household Labor Supply. Economic Studies. 12 (2): 22-54
Chowdhury, M. N. M., & Hossain, M. (2019). Population growth and economic development in Bangladesh: Revisited Malthus. Munich Personal. Retrieved on June 25, 2020.
Coale, A. J., & Hoover, E. M. (2019). Population Growth and Economic Development in Low-Income Countries 8–11.
Dasgupta, P. S. (2018). "On the Concept of Optimum Population." Economic Studies. 37 (4): 296–321.
Dolan, P., Layard, R., & Metcalfe, R. (2011). Measuring subjective well-being for public policy.
Ehrlich, I., & Kim, J. (2015). Immigration, human capital formation, and endogenous economic growth. Journal of Human Capital, 9(4), 518-563.
Fabrizi, E., Mussida, C., & Parisi, M. L. (2023). Comparing Material and Social Deprivation Indicators: Identification of Deprived Populations. Social Indicators Research, 165(3), 999–1020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-022-03058-6
Fulop, M. (2019). A survey of the literature on the economic theory of fertility behavior. The American Economist, 21(1), 5–13.
Githaiga, G., & Bett, J. (2020, August 8). Is ‘one man one vote one shilling’ what the Constitution is about? Katiba Corner. https://katibainstitute.org/jill-cottrell-ghai-is-one-man-one-vote-one-shilling-what-the-constitution-is-about/
Gronau, Reuben (2020). Home Production - A Survey. Handbook of Labour Economics, Vol. 1, edited by Ashenfelter and Layard. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Hagerty, M., Vogel, J., & Møller, V. (2002). Introduction: Assessing National Quality of Life and Living Conditions: The State of the Art. Social Indicators Research, 1-11.
Hamermesh, D. “Time to Eat: Household Production under Increasing Income Inequality,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 91 (2019): 657–732.
Kabubo-Mariara, J., Wambugu, A., & Musau, S. (2011). Multidimensional poverty in Kenya: Analysis of maternal and child well-being. UNICEF and PEP
Kakungu, F. (2013). Resource Allocation Model for the Constituency Development Fund.
Karadimitriou, N.; Maloutas, T.; Arapoglou, V.P. Multiple Deprivation and Urban Development in Athens, Greece: Spatial Trends and the Role of Access to Housing. Land 2021, 10, 290. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030290
Kayode, S. J., Muhammad, M. S., & Bello, M. U. (2021). Effect of Socioeconomic Characteristics of Households on Housing Condition in Bauchi Metropolis, Bauchi State, Nigeria. Traektoriâ Nauki Path of Science, 7(7), 2017-2019.
Kumar, A. (2021). Rural Households’ Access to Basic Amenities in India. Poverty and Deprivation: Changing Contours, 5(4), 169.
Land, K. C., & Michalos, A. C. (2018). Fifty years after the social indicators’ movement: Has the promise been fulfilled? Social Indicators Research, 135(3), 835-868.
Malthus, T. R. (1798). An essay on the principle of population as it affects the future improvement of society. Reproduced in 2018, in “The economics of population” (pp. 41–50). Routledge.
Maurya, N., & Pandey, A. (2010). Deprivation Index: A State-Wise Analysis. Available at SSRN 2368673.
Montibeller, G., & Franco, L. A. (2011). Resource allocation in local government with facilitated portfolio decision analysis. In Portfolio decision analysis (pp. 259-281). Springer, New York, NY.
Muth, R. F. (2020). Household Production and Economic Demand Functions. Econometrica 34: 699–708
Nafziger, E. W., & Yoder, J. C. (2021). The economics of development. In Mennonites and Post-Colonial African Studies (pp. 114-127).
Ndii, D. (2020, July 28). One Man, One Shilling Politics: A Return to Inequitable Development, Marginalisation and Exclusion—The Elephant. https://www.theelephant.info/opinion/2020/07/28/one-man-one-shilling-politics-a-return-to-inequitable-development-marginalisation-and-exclusion/
Ngigi, S., & Busolo, D. N. (2019). Devolution in Kenya: the good, the bad and the ugly. Public Policy and Administration Research, 9(6), 9-21.
Ngunjiri, J. (2024, May 19). Revenue sharing formula: Gachagua’s new push and an analysis of the ‘one man, one-one shilling’ chorus. | Vellum Kenya. https://vellum.co.ke/revenue-sharing-formula-gachaguas-new-push-and-an-analysis-of-the-one-man-one-one-shilling-chorus/
Oates, W. E. (2005). Toward A Second-Generation Theory of Fiscal Federalism. International Tax and Public Finance, 12(4), 349–373. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10797-005-1619-9
Oates’, W. E. (1999). An Essay on Fiscal Federalism.
Robbins, L. (2021). The optimum theory of population. In T. E. Gregory & H. Dalton (eds.), London essays in economics: In honour of Edwin Cannan (pp. 103–134). Routledge.
Samuelson, P. A. (1954). The Pure Theory of Public Expenditure. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4), 387–389. https://doi.org/10.2307/1925895
Saunders, P., & Naidoo, Y. (2009). Poverty, Deprivation and Consistent Poverty. Economic Record, 85(271), 417–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2009.00565.x
Shandler, R., & Canetti, D. (2019). A reality of vulnerability and dependence: internet access as a human right. Israel Law Review, 52(1), 77-98.
Townsend, P. (1987). Deprivation. Journal of Social Policy, 16(2), 125–146. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279400020341
Varian, E. (2018). Population and economic growth. American Economic Review, March: 21: pp. 77–98.
Weir, D. R. (2018). Malthus’s theory of population. In The World of Economics (pp. 401–406). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
World Health Organization. (2021). Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2020: five years into the SDGs.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Laureen Karima, Samuel Nyandemo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
