Almost 16,308,563 million children across Kenya, 67 percent of the country’s children are facing the dual impacts of poverty and the climate emergency.
This was disclosed in a new research by Save the Children.
They are among more than 150 million children across East and Southern Africa gripped by both grinding poverty and climate disaster.
South Sudan topped the list of countries in the region most likely to face this “double threat”, with 87% of children in the country affected, followed by Mozambique (80%) and Madagascar (73%).
Kenya ranks 10th highest (67%) in the globe and 3rd in East and Southern Africa in terms of the overall number of children facing this double threat.
“The climate emergency and issues of inequality are deeply connected, and cannot be dealt with in isolation from each other.
In Kenya, this connection could not be any more obvious. The devastating drought we’ve seen in Kenya and in the larger Horn of Africa is the worst in 40 years and has hit the poorest parts of the country hardest, leaving millions of people hungry and many displaced.
Crises like these push people even deeper into grinding poverty and leave millions of people even more vulnerable to the next flood or drought,” Yvonne Arunga, Kenya and Madagascar Country Director for Save the Children said.
According to the report, globally, 774 million children fall into this high-risk group.
Save the Children warned that, if the climate and inequality crisis is not addressed with urgency, the frequency and severity of humanitarian and cost of living crises are set to soar.
