Malnutrition a threat to Kenya’s economic growth, report says

Malnutrition is robbing future generations of their earning potential and stands in the way of Kenya’s economic development, with the country losing more money through undernutrition than it allocated to all counties this financial year, a report has revealed.

A new Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) report says the country lost Sh373.9 billion in 2014, 6.9 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP), an amount higher than the Sh316.5 billion allocated to the counties as equitable shareable revenue in the 2019/2020 financial year.

Thanks to undernutrition, the country lost Sh352.1 billion in labour productivity, Sh18.6 billion in health related costs, and Sh3.2 in education related losses. Child undernutrition manifests itself in the form of stunting, wasting, or being underweight.

Low height

Stunting refers to having low height for one’s age, while wasting refers to having low weight for one’s height. Being underweight refers to having low weight for one’s age.

The study confirms an earlier one released in 2016 by The Global Panel, a nutrition and food security think-tank, which estimated that the country lost Sh147 billion annually as productivity losses due to malnutrition.

Speaking during the launch of the report in Nairobi, Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said the government was committed to delivering the food and security pillar of the Big Four agenda, saying Kenya was committed to reducing stunting to 14.5 per cent by 2030.

“The loss to our GDP is an opportunity lost forever. Development of county-specific nutrition strategies, therefore, is no longer a choice,” she said.

Economic returns

Speaking at the same forum, Martha Nyagaya, the Country Director, Nutrition International, Kenya, said investing in nutrition had immense economic returns.

“If we invested only $30 (Sh3,000) per child, we would reverse the undernutrition situation in the country. For every dollar invested in nutrition we get 22 back,” she said. 

“Nutrition is not just a health issue, it is also an economic one,” Nyagaya added. 

Of the 20.3 million working age Kenyans who engage in manual activities, 41.2 per cent (8.4 million) were stunted as children translating to Sh96.7 billion loss in productivity in their adulthood, according to the COHA report.

The situation is no better for the working age Kenyans engaged in non-manual jobs as 14.4 per cent of them (4.5 million people) were found to have suffered from childhood stunting translating to a Sh66.6 billion loss in productivity.