Kenya

Agriculture, the livelihood of a good two-thirds of the population, is largely dependent on natural rainfall. There is little irrigation. Productivity is correspondingly low. Droughts repeatedly lead to shortages in food supply, especially in the dry northern area of Kenya. Artificial irrigation and better management of water resources could significantly increase yields – and thus incomes. But so far this has barely been achieved. The situation is aggravated by the fact that farming families are unable to market their harvests adequately. Sometimes there are not enough roads, sometimes not enough markets, sometimes not enough of either.

KfW Development Bank is therefore funding irrigation projects as well as the construction of transport routes and markets. The aim is to permanently increase agricultural productivity. The goal is to poverty and secure food supplies regardless of the weather. Farmers are at the centre of the funded projects; they are involved in planning and learn how to operate and maintain systems.

KfW goes one step further with the new small-scale irrigation systems. Here, the beneficiaries not only have a say, they also participate significantly in the funding of the system, which then becomes their property.

Those who fall ill in Kenya, who do not have much money and need medical treatment, often become poor as a result. This is because the costs of health care place a disproportionately higher burden on the poor. Among other things, this leads to poor women often giving birth at home – without competent medical care. The high maternal and child mortality rates are also due to this. In general, public health facilities are often underfunded and of poor quality.

KfW Development Bank is therefore pursuing the goal of reducing the high maternal and child mortality rates in Kenya. At the same time, the bank is continuing to work on building a health insurance system. To this end, the national insurance carrier will be strengthened organisationally and insurance premiums for poor families will be co-funded.

The measures are intended to ensure that all people in Kenya have equal access to quality health services in the medium and long term. In addition, the aim is to establish a system that is not only effective in individual cases but can also sustainably ensure the entire funding of the necessary health services in the long term. However, to achieve the desired success, health services need to be more than just accessible – the quality also has to be right. This is why KfW Development Bank is also committed to raising quality in the sector.

Around half of the Kenyan population does not have safe access to clean drinking water or adequate sanitation. Defective and often illegal water connections constitute a high risk to health. This is exacerbated by unhygienic storage and handling in households, leading to a high incidence of water-related diseases. The rapid urbanisation process in Kenya is also causing the demand for water and sanitation services to increase much more than existing capacities can meet.

Nevertheless, it has been possible to implement far-reaching reforms in the water sector over the past ten years. Among other things, a commercially oriented, formalised and regulated water supply was established. With the water sector reform passed in 2016, the county administrations are now also responsible for water supply.

KfW has been involved in the Kenyan water sector for over 50 years on behalf of the German Federal Government. Funding is provided primarily for infrastructure measures. Special focus is placed on improving the supply of clean and affordable drinking water in poor urban neighbourhoods. To this end, KfW provides investment funds for water kiosks and public sanitary facilities to the Water Services Trust Fund, a national funding institution for the implementation of poverty-orientated investments. As a result, more than 1.8 million people have already been reached.

Project information - Water supply Kenya (PDF, 138 KB, non-accessible)

Despite political and economic reforms that have led to greater investment and a more stable economic situation, unemployment in the country is officially high. Among adolescents, it is even more than 22%. At the same time, there is a lack of well-trained skilled workers.

The Kenyan-German TVET Initiative (KGTI), which was launched by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2017, has therefore set itself the goal of raising standards in vocational training. The aim is to pave the way for well-educated adolescents and young adults to enter the formal labour market and to enable them to build their own livelihoods.

In order to be successful, however, vocational training also needs to be an integral part of the entire education system. KfW is therefore also supporting a business incubator in Kenya to promote self-employment.

To enable upward social permeability, KfW is also supporting the “Wings to Fly” scholarship programme. It was launched by the Kenyan Equity Group Foundation. Particularly disadvantaged adolescents who achieve well in school, such as orphans or children from very poor families, are thus given the chance to attend a good secondary school. The scholarship holders are not only supported financially, but also receive personal and professional advice. This prepares them to find good employment in the future, to take up leadership positions and thus to move up the social ladder.

Project information - Vocational training Kenya (PDF, 158 KB, non-accessible)

The framework conditions for the power sector in Kenya are favourable compared to other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa; a series of reforms unbundled the energy sector, promoted competition and advanced the sectoral orientation towards full cost recovery. The national electrification rate was 75% of the population in 2019; renewable energy now accounts for about three quarters of the energy mix.

However, the development of the electricity grid is lagging behind the expansion of energy generation capacities. So the connection of central electricity consumers and producers is delayed time and again. In addition, massive grid losses, but also power outages, reduce the reliability and efficiency of the electricity supply.

On behalf of the German Federal Government, KfW is supporting the Kenyan government in its efforts to secure a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and reliable electricity supply. Renewable energy sources (geothermal, solar, wind and hydropower) and their provision via a modern grid infrastructure are promoted.

Through the construction of geothermal power plants and the rehabilitation of hydropower plants, a total of 470 megawatts of electricity were generated in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner – thus saving 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 annually. In addition to new geothermal power plants, KfW is also currently planning to fund other renewable energy sources and to modernise and expand the grid infrastructure (electricity transmission and distribution).