Kenya lies across the equator in east-central Africa on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somalia to the east, Ethiopia to the north, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. In the north, the land is arid; the southwestern corner is in the fertile Lake Victoria Basin; and a length of the eastern depression of the Great Rift Valley separates western highlands form those that rise from the lowland coastal strip (www. aidsandafrica. com).
The population of Kenya broken down is Men: 900,000 Women: 1. 1 million. There are two million adults and the percentage of those adults infected is nearly 14% (Yamano, 2005). Work-related mobility often creates an imbalance in the gender ratio proportion of women to men. This creates the environment which sex partner sharing is normal. Examples of this would be a man having more than one wife. At truck stops the women sex workers outnumber the vendors and drink shop owners which are positions held by men.
In mining camps the very opposite is true where men greatly outnumber the women. In both situations same sex partner sharing allows the virus to flourish (Yamano, 2005). There are diverse cultural rules in Kenya, given the presence of 40 indigenous cultures and ethnic groups (ww. aidsandafrica. com). These groups have different languages and social structures as well as differing cultural beliefs and practices. Some of these practices, such as wide inheritance, taking the wife of a diseased relative to be their own and polygamy conflict with HIV prevention.
In most of these communities, men decide on issues of economic productivity such as land, capital, and technology. Since men have more education and economic power than women cultural beliefs also favor men allowing them to make decisions that may not favor a women’s well being. Since women are lower ranked socially when they are divorced or separated, they are driven into commercial prostitution work due to necessity to survive. Also some parents disown daughters who become
pregnant; these girls flee to the nearest town and do the only thing they know how to do for a paycheck, prostitution (Bell, 2006). Several studies have shown the impact of the AIDS epidemic in Kenya focusing on economics, health education and the development of the population size. Macroeconomic studies in the 1990’s (Bloom and Mahal, 1997) suggest that the effects of AIDS epidemics on the economies of Sub-Saharan African countries are small. Although small, there is a chance of collapse in the economy in the absence of government aid.
These studies conclude by recommending measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the disease and emphasize the importance of governmental commitment to addressing HIV-related problems, and treating the disease as a “national priority” (Bloom and Mahal, 1997). Kenya is in a state of turmoil as Aids plagues the nation. AIDS does not bring about a catastrophic economic collapse, but it does inflict large economic costs – and very many deaths. Kenya has more than one million people estimated to be living with AIDS (1.2 million as of the end of 2003), (Young, 2005).
The AIDS epidemic poses significant challenges because Kenya is a low income country. The Government of Kenya established a National AIDS Control Council (NACC) in 1999, and has a National Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS for 2005-2010. In order to reform the problem of AIDS with Kenya, Kenyan political officials need to educate the people in Kenya about homosexuality, sexual protection and education for the youth in Kenya so they may understand the dangers and risks of AIDS.
According to Lauren Bridges, a North Carolina State University Graduate who spent a year in Kenya for the reformation movement, AIDS in Kenya is so prevalent it will take decades to make improvements in the society. Labor supply of adult AIDS patients receiving treatment; and labor supply of patients’ household members would be the first step in the right direction to reforming AIDS. Within six months after treatment initiation, there is a 20 percent increase in patients’ likelihood of participating in the labor force and a 35 percent increase in weekly hours worked (Corrigan, 2005).
This will help citizens be able to earn money without prostitution. In my interview with Lauren Bridges, a North Carolina State Graduate, who visited Kenya over Christmas 2007 in relief efforts I found that most of the common problems with Kenya economically starts with AIDS. “It is a plague that starts a domino effect, and these children are helpless to try and fight the disease and other suffering elements of their lives such as starvation and working. ” (Lauren Bridges, 2008). Personal psychology affects individuals and how they react to having AIDS.
A young girl will most likely make her decision about schooling depending on her life expectancy. AIDS is well known for having a strong impact on long term growth. In conclusion to this fact, individuals stop getting a formal education when their life expectancy falls. According to Corrigan, Glomm and Mendez, (2004), in a second generation study, individuals can die prematurely before the start of the last period of life. There are considered to be three periods for an individual’s life in this study.
They consider several scenarios, depending on the duration and strength of HIV/AIDS deaths, growth rates in all scenarios fall when the epidemic breaks out. The process of human resources formation is not only dependent on their parent’s survival, but also on the time the child spends pursuing formal education rather than working. In addition to deciding about their own health needs and savings, parents, who are assumed to be unselfish, now also decide about their children’s schooling and needs. If an individual is infected with HIV Virus, he also decides about spending on medical treatment, and does not save.
The effects of the AIDS epidemic are large, reducing the current income after ten generations by 5-45% of potential NO-AIDS income, depending on the scenario (Corrigan, Glomm and Mendez, 2005) This paper focuses on the prospects for the development of human capital and economic growth in Kenya, even as the AIDS epidemic threatens that country with premature adult deaths. This paper also focuses on the young people in Kenya. Young people in Kenya, as in most parts of the world, are confronted with a choice between continuing their education and entering the labor industry, and they usually have some say in that decision.
This is a rare opportunity that young Kenya children have and other countries throughout Africa do not. At about the same time they also become sexually active, with all the risks that entails, including unplanned parenthood and contracting sexually transmitted diseases. As young adults, they choose partners have children and take on the responsibilities of family life. Polygamy is another cause of the spread of AIDS in Kenya (Bloom and Mahal, 1997) Labor is the central productive asset of the poor in most developing countries.
Labor supply and related outcomes like income have been the focus of many studies that examine the impacts of nutrition, morbidity, and AIDS-related mortality. Given this effect on patients’ labor supply, treatment can also have benefits within the household. On the one hand, the increase in a patient’s labor supply has an income effect that allows other household members to work less. On the other hand, the improvement in the patient’s health reduces the care-taking and housework burden on family members, in so doing having a time increase effect that allows for more work and leisure.
The labor supply of younger boys in patients’ households declines after the initiation of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy. In multiple patient households, both younger and older boys, as well as other adults in the household, work less after patients receive treatment (Bell, 2006). This suggests that intrahousehold decisions about time allocation are influenced by the provision of treatment, and that the welfare of some household members beyond the patient may increase.
The effects on the labor supply of younger children are particularly important since they suggest potential schooling impacts from treatment, and the returns to primary school education are especially large in developing countries. The labor force and education are the two key building blocks that will form the foundation of the AIDS reform in Kenya. Highly active antiretroviral therapy has been proven to reduce the likelihood of infections and prolong the life of HIV-infected individuals. After several months of treatment, patients are generally asymptomatic and have improved functional capacity.
Individuals are considered eligible for ARV therapy after they progress to AIDS. Numerous studies in various countries and patient populations have reported positive results. First-line ARV regimens used to cost more than $10,000 per patient per year. However, since 2000 widespread generic production of medicines has reduced these prices significantly, to as low as $140 (negotiated by the Clinton Foundation for treatment in selected countries) in 2004. Further declines may be possible with greater generic competition and bulk purchasing agreements.
Expenditures on lab tests and HIV clinic operations can also be sizable, with the sum of these non-drug costs dependent on the treatment setting. Treatment is becoming more readily available to people with the epidemic in Kenya. Not only are the patients starting to see benefits of the ARV treatment but also the family members of the patients. Schooling is affected as well because now child labor decreases because the parents are able to work more efficiently and do not have to rely on their children to help with the family income.
History plays an important role in my analysis of the affects of AIDS in Kenya. Around the time World War II was arising rapid population growth and a falling death rate contributed to the decline of individual productivity leading to a drop in the expansion of education (Corrigan, 2005). On December 12, 1963, Kenya became fully independent. Jomo Kenyatta, a nationalist leader during the independence struggle, became its first president. From 1964 to 1992 the country was ruled as a one-party state by the Kenya African National Union (KANU), first under Kenyatta and then under Daniel arap Moi.
A series of disasters plagued Kenya in 1997 and 1998: severe flooding destroyed roads, bridges, and crops; epidemics of AIDS, malaria and cholera overwhelmed the ineffectual health care system; and ethnic clashes erupted between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin ethnic groups in the Rift Valley. Kenya is regularly ranked among the ten most corrupt countries in the world, according to the watchdog group Transparency International (www. aidsandafrica. com). In August 2000, UN aid workers estimated 3. 3 million Kenyans were at risk of starvation due to a devastating East African drought.
An anticorruption law failed to pass in Parliament in August 2001 and endangered Kenya’s chances for international aid. This proves how hard the efforts will have to be to help the AIDS victims in Kenya (Bell, 2006) Ten years ago in Kenya, AIDS was declared a national disaster. The victims of AIDS are overwhelmingly young adults or those in their early prime years, most of them with children to raise and care for so long-term threat to social well being is clear (Young, 2005). If parents die while their children are still young, then all the means needed to raise the children so that they can become productive citizens will be gone.
The affected families’ lifetime income will shrink, and also the ability to finance the children’s education. Because of a parent’s death the children will lose the love, knowledge and guidance which they would have had if their parents did not die because of AIDS. These types of problems will take decades to recover from, just like the disease; they are long drawn out problems. Premature deaths, economic instability and a weak effort from their own government to provide services plague this nation. Kenya needs to become less corrupt and relief programs and services should
be provided. The AIDS epidemic threatens Kenya with a long wave of early deaths for adults, and a setback to the formation of human capital and economic growth. Although AIDS does not bring about a catastrophic economic collapse, it does cause large economic costs and very many deaths. Material loss is the prime reason there is decline in the economy because of AIDS. To truly begin to help this society, work and education must be fixed and other problems will begin to start fixing themselves.
Works Citied Bell, C & Shantayanan Devarajan & Hans Gersbach, 2006.“The Long-Run Economic Costs of aids: A Model with an Application to South Africa,” World Bank Economic Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 55-89. Bloom, D. and Mahal, A. (1997), “AIDS, Flu and Black Death: Impacts on Economic Growth and Well-being”, in D. Bloom and P. Godwin (eds. ), The Economics of HIV and AIDS:
The Case of South and South East Asia, New York: Oxford University Press. Corrigan, Paul & Glomm, Gerhard & Mendez, Fabio, 2005. ”AIDS crisis and growth,” Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 107-124, June.
Yamano, Takashi & Jayne, TS, 2005. “Working-Age Mortality and Primary School Attendance in Rural Kenya,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol53(3), pages 619-53, April. Young, Alwynn, 2005. “The Gift of the Dying: The Tragedy of Aids and the Welfare of Future African Generations,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 120(2), pages 423-466, May. Bridges, Lauren. 1224 New Crest Ln. , Shelby, NC. 28150. North Carolina State University Grad. AIDS reformation in Kenya enthusiast. www. aidsandafrica. com.