Kenyan Census

Last tuesday at 8 AM I received a knock on my door from these two visitors.  They were official Kenyan census takers who along with perhaps thousand of other workers have 1 week to knock on doors of every house, apartment, shamba, and hut in Kenya.

       I invited them in to our duplex and proceeded to be part of a Kenyan census.  The questions were quite interesting ranging from level of education, religion, number of children, possession of phone, radio, tv, vehicle, and pets, and my most favorite question; how many wives do you have?  

I think our wazungu family skewed the census in many different ways, but it got me thinking about what does the typical Kenyan household consist of?

These statistics were pulled from the care international website (http://www.careinternational.org.uk/3235/kenya/kenya-statistics.html).  

Kenya is striving to meet the needs of its population of over 30 million, but as you can see it has a long way to go in regards to availability of clean water, maternal mortality rate (1/100 mothers die during child birth) and HIV care.   No surprises to see that nearly one quarter of Kenyans live on less than one dollar per day.

Kenya Statistics

Population	31.9 million
Urban population	35%
Major ethnic and linguistic groups	Kikuyu 22%, Luo 13%, Luhya 14%, Kamba 11%, Kalenjin 12% and others.
Languages	Swahili, English (both official), Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Meru and others.
Religion	Protestantism 45%, Roman Catholicism 33%, Islam 10% and Traditional Beliefs 12%.
Life expectancy (at birth)	45.5 years
Infant mortality (under one)	78 per 1000 live births
Under five mortality	123 per 1000 live births
Maternal mortality rate	1000 per 100,000 live births
Adult HIV prevalence rate (ages 15-49)	6.7%
Percentage population with access to safe drinking water	62%
Adult literacy rate	84%
Proportion of population living on below $1 a day	23%