Kakamega County

Kakamega County (until 2010 Kakamega District ) is a county in the Kenyan province of Western. The capital of the county is Kakamega. In the county lies the nature reserve Kakamega Forest National Reserve, the last rainforest in Kenya.

Structure

Kakamega County is divided into seven divisions. There are nine constituencies: Malava, Lugari, Mumias, Matungu, Lurambi, Shinyalu, Ikolomani, Butere and Khwisero. Under the Constitution of 2010, the districts of Kakamega Central, Kakamega North, Kakamega East, Kakamega South, Lugari and Mumias were united under the new name Kakamega County.

Economy

In addition to livestock, people in Kakamega County live mainly from agriculture. Crops are sugar cane, tea, sunflower and soya beans for sale, corn, sweet potatoes, beans and plantains for their own use. Furthermore, avocado, papaya, bananas and pineapples are grown. The livestock consists mainly of cattle and poultry breeding. In 2002, almost 57.5 % of the population were below the poverty line.

Education and health

In the county there are several primary and secondary schools. The school dropout rate in 1999 was 26% in primary and 5.3% in the Secondary School quite high. Reasons for the termination of the Primary School by many parents are not affordable school fees are mentioned, as well as the fact that many children are orphaned and drop out of school to look after younger siblings. In the Secondary School are the reasons for the early termination of the majority of training early pregnancy and / or early marriage.

The County has 55 health care facilities. The infant mortality rate is 6.3%, quite high, 12.25% of children die before reaching their fifth birthday. In addition, the Kakamega County suffers from the highest HIV / AIDS rates in Kenya. The prevalence is 23.8 %.

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