Kenya Country Details

Kenya

Kenya, a country in East Africa. It borders Ethiopia on the north, Somalia on the north-east, Tanzania on the south, Uganda on the west, and Sudan on the northwest, with the Indian Ocean on the southeast.

Demographics

Kenya has a very diverse population that includes most major language groups of Africa. Traditional pastoralists, rural farmers, Muslims, Christians, and urban residents of Nairobi and other cities contribute to the cosmopolitan culture. The standard of living in major cities, once relatively high compared to much of Africa, has been declining in recent years. Most city workers retain links with their rural, extended families and leave the city periodically to help work on the family farm. About 75% of the work force is engaged in agriculture, mainly as subsistence farmers.

Population:30,339,770

note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2000 est.)

Age structure:

0-14 years: 43% (male 6,566,424; female 6,419,034)

15-64 years: 54% (male 8,284,719; female 8,238,121)

65 years and over: 3% (male 366,200; female 465,272) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.53% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 29.35 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 14.08 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:

at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female

under 15 years: 1.02 male(s)/female

15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female

65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female

total population: 1.01 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 68.74 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:

total population: 47.98 years

male: 46.95 years

female: 49.04 years (2000 est.)

Languages: English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages

Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 78.1%

male: 86.3%

female: 70% (1995 est.)

Leading Causes of Death from Infecious Diseases

Lower Respiratory Infection

AIDS/HIV

Diarreah Disease

Tuberculosis

Malaria

Leading Causes of Death

An attempt to identify the leading causes of death in Kenya posses a difficult challenge due to three major factors. The first of which, is the absence of a reliable national system of death registration among all the countries within the sub-Saharan African continent. This lack of a standardize data repository not only creates great barriers when trying to formulate sufficient mortality levels and trends, but is even more problematic when trying to pinpoint the underlying causes behind them.

Another major hindrance in obtaining knowledge of cause of death arises from the fact that many deaths have multiple causes. Consider, for example, an individual who is moderately malnourished, has been recently diagnosed with HIV, and dies shortly afterward from acute diarrhea and pneumonia. From this scenario, the exact cause of death can not be concluded since any one of these conditions could have attributed to it.

A second major area of concern is the quality of the diagnoses. Even in the best hospitals of Europe and the United States, a number of deaths are assigned to incorrect causes. This occurrence is even more prevalent in developing countries where accurate diagnoses are even more difficult to obtain. This is due heavily to the fact that a large portion of deaths occur outside of modern facilities and are not observed by qualified diagnosticians. Even in hospitals, diagnosis is complicated by the lack of complete and accurate case histories, a low rate of autopsy, and a shortage of diagnostic facilities. In addition, many patients arrive at the hospital during the last stages of the disease, which makes is difficult to disentangle the proximate causes. This combination of factors inhibits a clearer understanding what the actual causes of death truly are.

Leading Causes of Death from Infectious Diseases

With that being said, it is however, difficult to argue that the overwhelming presence of infectious diseases has not played a major role in the causes of death in this country. Despite medical advances that have produced hundreds of drugs that are safe and effective against bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, it is estimated that infectious diseases are still a major cause of death, disability and social and economic upheaval for millions around the world, including Kenya.

Poverty, lack of access to health care, antibiotic resistance, evolving human migration patterns, new infectious agents, and changing environmental and development activities all contribute to the expanding impact of infectious diseases. Overcrowded and poor living conditions make those living in poverty especially vulnerable to communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and cholera.