About 48 percent of Kenyans have described 2019 as a bad year, citing the high cost of living and unemployment as the major challenges facing them, an end of year opinion poll released on Tuesday in Nairobi by Trends and Insights for Africa (TIFA) has disclosed.
The findings of this survey point to a double edged-sword as the proportion of those who feel 2019 was a bad year declined (in comparison to a similar study in 2018) whilst at the same time, those who say it was a good year declined from 43percent to 17percent.
The proportion of those who are lukewarm increased from 1 percent to 35 percent between 2018 and 2019.
In 2019, the high cost of living and unemployment were the challenges faced by most Kenyans.
There were also mentions of doctors/nurses’ strike as a critical challenge faced. According to the survey, this could be attributed to the fact that in at least 17 counties, nurses went on strike while doctors went on strike in at least 2 counties in 2019.
Kenyans also indicate that they lacked access to credit, and this could be, to some extent, be attributed to their poor credit ratings.
“The high cost of living is ranked as the No. 1 problem facing Kenyans in all national surveys by TIFA. These sentiments are supported by macro-economic indicators – for instance, the annual inflation rate rose from 3.38 percent in September 2019 to 5.56 percent in November 2019,” said Maggie Ireri, a researcher at TIFA.
Kenya’s economic growth in 2019 was 5.7 percent, and this was a slight decrease from the 5.8% growth experienced in 2018.
In spite of the excellent GDP indicators, the perception amongst Kenyans is that the economy is performing poorly as there fewer jobs to show for it. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Economic Report shows that the number of formal jobs created has declined in the last five years.
The issue of fewer formal jobs is compounded by the fact that many companies in Kenya laid-off workers in 2019.
In addition, Kenya’s 12-month inflation in November 2019 stood at 5.56 percent and this was the highest rate since July 2019.
“A refocus on improving economic indicators such as employment and inflation is the sure way reconnecting with citizens who are currently unhappy about their personal financial health,” Ireri noted.
JK/abj/APA