Child labour and prostitution
Child labour is common in Kenya. Most working children are active in agriculture. In 2006, UNICEF estimated that up to 30% of girls in the coastal areas of Malindi, Mombasa, Kilifi, and Diani were subject to prostitution. Most of the prostitutes in Kenya are aged 9–18. The Ministry of Gender and Child Affairs employed 400 child protection officers in 2009. The causes of child labour include poverty, the lack of access to education and weak government institutions. Kenya has ratified Convention No. 81 on labour inspection in industries and Convention No. 129 on labour inspection in agriculture.
Microfinance in Kenya
24 institutions offer business loans on a large scale, specific agriculture loans, education loans and for any other purpose loans. Additionally, there are:
emergency loans, which are more expensive in respect to interest rates, but are quickly available
group loans for smaller groups (4–5 members) and larger groups (up to 30 members)
women loans, which are also available to a group of women
Out of approximately 40 million Kenyans, about 14 million Kenyans are not able to receive financial service through formal loan application service and an additional 12 million Kenyans have no access to financial service institutions at all. Further, 1 million Kenyans are reliant on informal groups for receiving financial aid.
Conditions for microfinance products
Eligibility criteria: the general criteria might include gender as in the case for special women loans, to be at least 18 years old, to own a valid Kenyan ID, have a business, demonstrate the ability to repay the loan, and to be a customer of the institution.
Credit scoring: there is no advanced credit scoring system and the majority has not stated any official loan distribution system. However, some institutions require to have an existing business for at least 3 months, own a small amount of cash, provide the institution with a business plan or proposal, have at least one guarantor, or to attend group meetings or training. For group loans, almost half of the institutions require group members to guarantee for each other.
Interest rate: they are mostly calculated on a flat basis and some at a declining balance. More than 90% of the institutions require monthly interest payments. The average interest rate is 30–40% for loans up to 500,000 Kenyan Shilling. For loans above 500,000 Kenyan Shilling, interest rates go up to 71%.
Demographics of Kenya
Kenya had a population of approximately 48 million people in January 2017. Kenya has a young population, with 73% of residents aged below 30 years because of rapid population growth; from 2.9 million to 40 million inhabitants over the last century.
Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is home to Kibera, one of the world’s largest slums. The shanty town is believed to house between 170,000 and 1 million locals. The UNHCR base in Dadaab in the north also currently houses around 500,000 people.
Ethnic groups
Kenya has a diverse population that includes most major ethnoracial and linguistic groups found in Africa. There are an estimated 47 different communities, with Bantus (67%) and Nilotes (30%) constituting the majority of local residents. Cushitic groups also form a small ethnic minority, as do Arabs, Indians and Europeans.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Kenya has a total population of 38,610,097 inhabitants. The largest native ethnic groups are the Kikuyu (6,622,576), Luhya (5,338,666), Kalenjin (4,967,328), Luo (4,044,440), Kamba (3,893,157), Kisii (2,205,669), Mijikenda (1,960,574), Meru (1,658,108), Turkana (988,592), and Maasai (841,622). Foreign-rooted populations include Kenyan Arabs, Somalis, Asians and Europeans.
