Survey Report on Marginalized Areas/Counties in Kenya

Survey Report On Marginalized Areas/Counties In Kenya

Publisher	Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA)
Year of Publication
Category	Papers and Articles
County	All/General
Description	Marginalisation is a consequence of a skewed process ofthe distribution of scarce resources; it has been interpreted as a process of social exclusion from the dominant socio-economic, cultural and political structure. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 defines marginalised communities as one or more of the following: a) Acommunity that,becauseofits relatively smallpopulationorfor anyotherreason,hasbeen unable to fully participate in the integrated social and economic life of Kenya as a whole. b) Atraditionalcommunitythat,outofaneedordesiretopreserveitsuniquecultureandidentityfrom assimilation,has remainedoutsidetheintegratedsocial andeconomic lifeofKenya as awhole. c) An indigenous community that has retained and maintained a traditional lifestyle and livelihood based on a hunter or gatherer economy; or pastoral persons and communities, whether they are: (i.) nomadic or (ii.) a settled community that, because of its relative geographic isolation, has experienced only marginal participation in the integrated social and economic life of Kenya as a whole. Kenya is characterised by marginalisation and inequality, exacerbated by the high level standards of living and insecurity. The constitution addresses the issue on marginalisation through affirmative action programmes and policies that are designed to redress any disadvantage suffered by individuals or groups because of past discrimination. Various methods have been suggested as to how to determine marginalised areas and communities. Suggested methods of measuring regional disparities have provoked much debate. Disparity is a multifaceted concept encompassing dimensions such as convergence, inequality and polarisation. Infactthere are somanydisparity indicators that, evenwhenanalysinga specificdimension, itisnot aneasy task tochoose amongthem. This being the case, the best practice usually involves the use of different indicators to measure the same dimension: if all indicators point to the same direction one can be fairly sure thatthe results are robust. The constitution states that public participation is desirable in any key decision making that touchesonpolicy issues. Thus,toidentifymarginalisedareas theCRAundertook a surveyovertwoweeks in June 2012, to seek public opinion regarding the criteria to be used when identifying marginalised areas in Kenya. The survey was conducted in all 47 counties and views were collected from individuals and groups representing many sectors of society. The survey was intended to assess the level of understandingofthe termmarginalisationas far as itrelates toKenya, andthe criteria that citizenswouldprefer touse toidentifymarginalisedcounties. The respondentsproposedspecificparameters tobeusedinthe identification process and named some ofthe counties thatthey considered to be marginalised. In each ofthe 47 counties, various areas within the counties were also mentioned as marginalised. Source: Commission on Revenue Allocation, www.crakenya.org
Tags	Public Finance
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