INCOME INEQUALITY

INCOME INEQUALITY

Income inequality also known as economic inequality or the gap between the poor and the rich is the difference between individuals or populations in the distribution of their assets, wealth or income. For example here in Nairobi people in slums are living in extreme poverty while those in formal settlement are living in luxury. Although there is income inequality all over the country and the world, I decided to be more specific and focus on Nairobi

Income inequality is a major problem here in Kenya. The rich people are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. There in a stereotype that the poor are not hard working and that is why they are poor. Well I had to take an interest in the matter and determine the real reason why there is such a huge gap in income. I had to read existing material and gathered some firsthand information from people to get the real course of the increased gap of income in Kenya. I took a study of Majengo which is mostly comprised of low income earners and also did a study in East Leigh which is mostly comprised of middle income earners and did another study in Karen which is comprised of mostly high income earners.

According to the people I spoke to and the secondary sources I read, income inequality is caused by the following factors: labour market outcomes, globalization, technological changes, policy reforms, more regressive taxation, computerization and increased technology, variation in natural ability and commercial education. I found out that people in formal settlement gave different views on this matter from those in informal settlement.

When analysing the labour market as a course, I spoke to Nassir Saidi who is a business man in Majengo. According to him, his business which is a barber shop has failed to expend due to competition from larger businesses. He said that he can never have skilled employees. According to him, he normally employs low experienced employees, after getting enough experience they ditch him to other employers who offer higher payments than him. According to Nasri, his business cannot expand because he can never offer excellent services because he cannot afford to pay the experienced employees. This has led to the stagnation of his business. On the other hand, I spoke to Mabel Isolio from Karen who has a research company. According to her, there is a huge gap between the poor and the rich because the poor are not innovative enough to come up with new competitive ideas to help them expand their businesses. She says that "for you to expand business, you have to be innovative, come up with new things that will enable you set the trends in your operational area, a feature the poor people lack.

I also had to analyze taxation as a course to large gap between the poor and the rich bearing in mind that taxation has been causing conflicts between the government and citizens. You find that when taxes are increased, with the same income, the low class people will have to tighten their budget. For example, Nassir Saidi told me that when the VAT bill was implemented, he had to remove milk in his budget, this has made him poorer. On the other hand, the increased taxation had no large effect on Mabel who told me that she understands that the government has to collect revenue, but I went on and asked her how she feels about that poor person who is making 100 shillings per day. She said that that was a tricky situation and that the government has to increase the minimum basic salary.

Another cause of the income inequality that I had to analyze is education. You find that Kenya is becoming friendlier to the educated population than the uneducated. This is why the less educated are poor while the educated people are rich. According to my study, as most people think that the uneducated people are not bright, I found out that this is not the case. I spoke to many people who did very well in high school in Kibera but never got the opportunity to join the university. According to James Omondi, his secondary school education was supported by the Kisumu CDF; he cleared his secondary school in Kisumu Boys High school and got a mean grade of B plain. Because of the status of his parents who could not afford the school fees, he could not join to a tertiary institution. He had to move to Kibera to do casual work in Order to support his aging parents. In Kenya you find that most education institutions are commercial and because of this, the poor people who are bright and willing to learn are denied the chance. on the other hand you find that the rich people take their children to good and expensive schools, even if they are not that good in class, they make sure that they have gone through the 8,4,4 system and get good jobs. This has increased the income inequality more and more.

I used to think that the people living in the informal settlement are on the same level in terms of income. I found out that this was contrary to my thoughts, among them; there are also gaps in incomes. This is mostly due to the impact of gender differences and abilities. I spoke to Wanjiru who stays in Majengo, she stays alone. She told me that most people in majengo do casual jobs like building assistants, carrying luggage and touts. she told me that it is a challenge to most women because they are not as competitive as men in these casual jobs hence comparing a single man living alone to a single lady living alone, the single man is likely to have a higher income than the single lady.

Those are just some of the causes of income inequality I managed to research on, now the main crucial part is the effects of income inequality. Most of the effects are negative and that is why I decided to research on this matter so that to help improve the lives of the people. According to Dr. George Gathigi, application of education to improve people’s lives is very important.

The effects of income inequality include: social and health problems, crime, corruption and drug abuse, moral challenges, hunger and death, exploitation of human rights.

 Income inequality also leads to health problems. You find that the people in informal settlements live in unhygienic environments. Where by access to clean water, toilets and sanitary pads is a problem. This leads to outbreak of water bone diseases and airborne diseases. You also find that because the population is dense, the diseases spread very fast.

Another problem is the increase in crime. The poor people may give the rich people sleepless nights by stealing from them. This may also involve violence. In Majengo for example, the Alshabaab used the advantage of the poor youth and recruited them into crime because the people thought it was better to join crime instead of leading in poverty.

You also find that with the income inequality, there is so much corruption. Poor people end up doing anything for a living. Jared Onyango, in Eastleigh told me that he sells Miraa for a living because there are no better jobs for him.

Moral challenges also erupt from this topic of concern. Mostly the ladies who lead a poor life and are not competitive in casual work find prostitution as an alternative. This will end up making the rich people especially the men to engage in immorality abandoning their wives to engage in sexual relationships with the available seductive women.

Another effect is the exploitation of human rights. The poor people, lacking information about their rights end up being exploited by the rich. For example being paid less than the minimum wage and also drugged into dangerous work like removing money from a pit latrine.

It is even worse where by people end up dying because of hunger and diseases due to poverty. No money to neither buy food nor get better treatment.

 

I have provided most crucial causes and effects of income inequality, here are my recommendations:

To reduce the income gap, as a development communication practitioner, should pressure the government through demonstrations and campaigns to ensure that everyone has got access to quality education despite their backgrounds and financial abilities.

I should also plan with my colleagues so that we can advice the low income earners on how they can expand their businesses and also teach them on how they can be self employed by the little funds available.

I also recommend that here in Kenya we adapt on socialism more than capitalism so that to avoid the issue of the wealthy people holding excessive wealth while some other people are dying of hunger.

So far there are a lot of people trying to fight the increase of income gap. For example the jubilee government launched Uwezo fund to enable the poor people to access the funds to start their own businesses.

Equity bank also has provided scholarship to the poor people who have capability and willing to learn but luck school fees so that they can also get access to education.

The county council of Nairobi is also trying hard to improve the lives of the low income earners by building permanent houses and setting affordable rent costs