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Residents living in informal settlements of urban areas like Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa are taking more unhealthy foods compared to healthy and sustainable ones, a new report now says.
Dubbed ‘SME4Nutrition project’, conducted by Wasafiri consulting Kenya, Village Enterprise and Shack Dwellers International, the report notes that over a seven-day recall period, households now consume only a few foods.
“In most Kenyan households, food consumption diversity is low, with people consuming just three types of foods out of a possible 20,” the report reads.
It attributes the situation to high food costs, low household incomes, highly seasonal availability and weak preferences for some foods.
The commonly consumed are cereals and vegetables, interspersed with common beans, and accompanied by tea.
“Consequently, the households consumed large amounts of milk, sugar, oils and fats. The intake of Healthy and Sustainable Foods (HSFs) is less across surveyed rural-urban areas, with only 23.5 per cent of households taking at least four HSFs within the seven days,” the report adds.
“For instance in Kibra, Nairobi, only 40 per cent were noted to be taking healthy foods.”
Nutrition experts, however, tend to recommend eating three balanced meals, 350 to 600 calories each, and one to three snacks per day, between 150 and 200 calories each.
Out of the surveyed households in Nairobi, West Pokot and Bungoma, about 62 per cent reported that HSFs were readily available in their local markets but too expensive.
“To afford the cost of food, which combines both the purchase price and cost of production for mostly rural households and purchase price for urban dwellers, households need adequate amounts of disposable income,” the report reads in part.
From the survey sample, household total expenditures are relatively low, with monthly medians of Sh7,400 to Sh16,000 and large proportions of households living below the national poverty line.
At prevailing household food expenditures, incomes and food prices, the report says between 73 per cent and 94 per cent of households would be able to afford the reference healthy and sustainable foods.
“However, at 50 per cent of cut expenditures, the proportions that can afford the reference diet ranges from a low of 27 per cent in Bungoma to the highest of 65 per cent in Kibra,” the report says in part.
The stakeholders suggest that increasing consumption of HSFs in the rural-urban areas would require concomitant increases in income, reduction in food prices, or reallocation of household food budget.
Data by United Nations shows Kenya has a population of 47.5 million and about 60 per cent of its urban population lives in informal settlements, mostly in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
This is a factor the stakeholders reiterate as one of the basis for choosing the study area. BY THE STAR