[A picture of a typical Kenyan family. Report indicates that 36.1% of Kenyans are extremely poor. Photo|Inter-Regional Peace Network]

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A survey released by Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS) has shown that a proportion of Kenyans living below the overall poverty line is about 36.1 percent. According to the survey out of the 36.1 percent, 32.0 percent are living belowthe food poverty line, while 8.6 percent are experiencing extreme poverty. Speaking on Thursday during the launch of the KIHBS survey report in Nairobi, theCabinet Secretary National Treasury Henry Rotich said the rate of poverty hasdeclined from 19.5 percent to 8.6 percent since the last survey was carried outfive years ago. “The improvement of the living standards can be attributed to the government’sinvestments in infrastructure such as roads, and improving of healthcarefacilities and education,” said Rotich. He said the statistics in the report will be used in monitoring progress, asthey are key in providing economic indicators, as well as act as a baseline forsustainable development goals. Rotich said “I am confident that the report will help in achieving Vision 2030and the President’s Big Four agenda in addressing poverty”. The survey report also shows that the rate of poverty in the rural areas washigher with 40.1 percent compared to core-urban at 29.4 percent and peri-urbanareas at 27.5 percent. Turkana has the highest rate of poverty with almost 80percent while Nairobi has the lowest below 20 percent. Speaking at the event, World Bank Country Representative Johannes Zutt said thedecline in core and peri-urban areas has resulted to a significant drop inpoverty nationally. Other highlights in the survey were on basic reports and labour reports, ofwhich under the basic report, the average household size nationally is at 4.0percent with the rural areas having a higher rate at 4.5 percent and urbanareas at 3.3 percent. On labour, the survey states that the rate of unemployment has decreased from12.7 percent from 7.4 percent in the past five years. The survey was conducted over 12 months between the months of September 2015 toAugust 2016 targeting a sample of 24,000 households countrywide.