UBI: KENYA

CONTEXT

Kenya is an independent country only since 1964, it is a located in the Eastern

Africa, with a population of over 54 million people (2021). Its officials’ languages are
English and Kiswahili but there are several indigenous languages. The country is a
source of emigrants and a host country for refugees.

Kenya’s relative stability since its independence in 1963 has attracted hundreds
of thousands of refugees escaping violent conflicts in neighboring countries; Kenya
shelters more than 300,000 Somali refugees as of April 2017. It’s also important to
know that only 28% of its total population is urbanized, representing a very rural
country.

Estimates for this country population explicitly take into account the effects of
excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant
mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the
distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.

POVERTY

About 1 million or 52% of children under 18 in Kenya are multidimensionally

poor, deprived of their fulfillment of between 3 and 7 basic needs and rights. 36.1% of
the population of Kenya lives below the international poverty line (daily consumption
less than US$1.90 per person). Although reliable numbers are hard to find,
unemployment and under-employment are extremely high, and could be near 40% of
the population.

Due to floods, desert locusts – about 850,000 people were estimated to be

severely food insecure in the October‑December 2020 period, down from 3.1 million
people in late 2019 due to consecutive favorable rainy seasons; by contrast, the food
security situation deteriorated in urban areas, where about 1 million people were
estimated to be food insecure due to the socio-economic impact of the pandemic on
the livelihoods of vulnerable households. Agriculture remains the backbone of the
Kenyan economy, contributing one-third of GDP.
WORKING HOURS

The general working hours are 52 per week, but the normal working hours
usually consist of 45 hours of work per week, that is Monday to Friday 8 hours each
and 5 hours on Saturday under the special Orders for different sectors subsidiary to
the Regulations of Wages and Conditions of Employment.

MINIMUM WAGE

The lowest salary in Kenya is Ksh13,572.90 and the highest Ksh30,627.45 per
month. The currency of Kenya is the Shilling (Sh), which is equivalent to 0.0092 US
dollars. Census data released showed that 5,341,182 or 38.9 percent of the
13,777,600 young Kenyans are jobless.

GIVEDIRECTLY

GiveDirectly is a non-profit organization operating in East Africa, helping families

living in extreme poverty by making unconditional money transfers to them via cell
phone. GiveDirectly transfers funds primarily to people in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda
and it collects donations from private donors on its website.

THE UBI PROJECT

In April 2016, GiveDirectly announced a $30M universal basic income testing

initiative to "attempt to permanently eradicate the extreme poverty afflicting dozens of
villages and thousands of people in Kenya by guaranteeing them a continuous income
high enough to meet their basic needs" and, if it works, pave the way for
implementation in other regions. The initiative began in 2017 and runs for 12 years.

They already distributed millions of dollars to 20,000 individuals living across

197 villages, and an additional 100 villages have been surveyed as a control group.
Working in rural Kenya, the organization plans to conduct a randomized control study
in 295 rural villages and separate them into 4 groups.

The first group it is a long-term basic income: 44 villages (4,966 people) with
recipients receiving roughly $0.75 per adult per day, delivered monthly for 12 years.
All payments for all groups are made in Kenyan Shillings. The second one it is a short-
term basic income: 80 villages (7,333 people) with recipients receiving the same
monthly amount, but only for 2 years.
 The third is called Lump Sum: 71 villages (8,548 people) with recipients
receiving the same amount as the short-term basic income group (in net present
value), but all up front as a “lump sum.” The last one it is the control group, in which
100 villages, will not receive cash transfers.

THE RESULT

In the 13 months since GiveDirectly began its experiment, Owiti and his fellow
villagers have slowly and quietly been disproving the biggest misconception about
basic income — that people who receive free money will stop working and waste the
cash on vices like gambling, drugs, or alcohol.

Recipients often use the income to pay- their kids' school fees, buy medicine,
repair their homes, and invest in their small businesses to further grow their wealth.
People's spending on alcohol and cigarettes went down when they received direct cash
transfers. Faced with a brighter future, many people stop using temptation goods to
cope with a hopeless situation, researchers have discovered.

People have worked more since the study began. The money received by the
beneficiaries also affects the market, and people in nearby villages, too. (every $1 of
cash delivered generated $2.60 in additional spending or income in the area).

FINAL THOUGHTS (IF ANYONE WANTS TO WRITE ANYTHING)

BIBLIOGRAPHY / REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS

BUSINESS DAILY AFRICA. Alarm as poverty levels in Kenya on the rise again.
Disponível em: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/data-hub/alarm-as-poverty-
levels-in-kenya-on-the-rise-again-2283914. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

BUSINESS INSIDER. A village in Kenya is quietly disproving the biggest myth

about basic income. Disponível em: https://www.businessinsider.com/kenya-village-
disproving-biggest-myth-about-basic-income-2017-12. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

CIA . Kenya's Factbook. Disponível em: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-

factbook/countries/kenya/. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

GIVEN DIRECTLY. UBI STUDY. Disponível em: https://www.givedirectly.org/ubi-

study/. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

MEDIUM. Https://medium.com/econsult-solutions/cities-that-are-testing-
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https://medium.com/econsult-solutions/cities-that-are-testing-universal-basic-income-
d51dcba8cc0b. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

SPRING GLOBAL. Kenya Comprehensive Poverty Analysis: Children, Youth,

Women, Men & the Elderly. Disponível em:
https://spriglobal.org/2020/08/27/kenyacpr/. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

TRADING ECONOMICS. Minimum Wage in Kenya. Disponível em:

https://tradingeconomics.com/kenya/minimum-wages. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

WE FORUM. Here's what happened when a charity gave $1,000 each to poor
households in Kenya. Disponível em:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/universal-basic-income-charity-poverty-
kenya/. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.

WORLD BANK. Poverty & Equity Brief Kenya Sub-Saharan Africa. Disponível em:
https://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/poverty/33EF03BB-9722-4AE2-ABC7-
AA2972D68AFE/Global_POVEQ_KEN.pdf. Acesso em: 23 abr. 2021.