Abstract:
Article 43, Section (1)(c) of the Bill of Rights of
the Kenya Constitution (2010) states that:
“Every person has the right to be
free from hunger, and to have
adequate food of acceptable
quality. To monitor progress and
targeting interventions towards
realization of this goal, an easyto-
use, but scientifically sound
measure of food security is
required.”
The objective of this paper is to construct such
measure that will subsequently constitute a
Food Security Score (henceforth, FSS) for
Kenya. This Food Security Score will enable
the classification of the food security status of
each county in the country.
This FSS study was nested within a crosssectional
baseline study conducted by the
African Women’s Studies Centre (AWSC). The
study had a representative sample of 4,129
households drawn from 20 randomly selected
counties within six of Kenya’s Agro-ecological
zones. The food security score study
consulted one adult respondent in each
household on the experiences, practices and
behaviours of household members that have a
bearing on food insecurity, including concerns
such as: (a) not having enough food to feed
the entire household; (b) cutting back on meal
rations because of insufficient amounts of food
stuffs; (c) lack of resources to buy food, and
(d) going to bed hungry because of an
absence of food to feed the household. Out of
the 4129 households surveyed, 4060
responded to all four key questions selected to
compute the FSS for Kenya. The results of the
study revealed that whereas 67 percent of
Kenyan households are food secure, 30
percent are food insecure, meaning that they
lack access to enough food to sustain an
active, healthy life for all members of their
households. From the category of the food
insecure group, a total of 9 percent are
chronically food insecure. Based on this FSS,
food security varied significantly amongst
various counties and agro ecological zones.
Agro-ecological zone (p-value<0.001) and
county (p-value<0.001) are significantly
associated with food security. Counties with
higher rates of food insecurity than the
nationally defined levels are mainly found in
the coastal lowlands, inland lowlands and
upper midlands agro-ecological zones. In line
with the Constitution of Kenya (2010), efforts
towards achieving food security need to focus
on ensuring that all Kenyans are food secure.
Although the two variables relating to the
specific agro-ecological zones and counties
significantly impact on food security in Kenya,
these are not amenable to interventions.
Hence, they can be used to target the most
vulnerable regions and monitor improvements
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after implementing appropriate interventions to
ameliorate food security. However, further
research is recommended to validate the FSS
regionally and internationally in order to
improve its universality of interpretation.