Nairobi — A newly published Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) has reported Kenya’s population of severely stunted children at 4.2 per cent marking an almost 50 per cent reduction compared to 8.1 per cent in 2014.
The findings launched on Monday mean only one in twenty children under the age of five were reported to be severely stunted in 2022 compared to one in ten documented in 2014.
Counties in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) however overshot the national average with Kilifi recording the highest concentration of severely stunted children at 13.4 per cent followed by West Pokot at 10.4 per cent.
Murang’a, Kisumu and Kirinyaga recorded the least proportion of severely stunted children at 1.1, 1.3 and 1.9 per cent respectively.
A comparative analysis of Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) DHS data over time revealed a steady decline in the proportion of children considered too short for their age from an all time high of 17.4 per cent (1998), 14.6 per cent and 14.2 per cent in 2003 and 2008/09 respectively.
KNBS also reported a significant decline in the overall percentage of stunted children, two standard deviations below the average threshold, registering a nine-point reduction to 17.6 per cent (2022) compared to 26 per cent in 2014.
Counties in ASALs however maintained higher percentages of stunted children (overall) with Kilifi recording 37 per cent followed by West Pokot (33.5pc) and Samburu (31.4pc).
Nationally, the proportion of children defined as wasted, otherwise considered too thin for their height, increased to 4.9pc in 2022 (one in twenty children) compared to only one in twenty-five (4pc) in 2014.
Stagnation
The percentage point increment in children measuring two standard deviations below the ideal weight for height under DHS 2022 only came two point shy of 2008/09 (6.7pc) levels and a percentage below 2003 record (6pc).
The study found one in ten children (10.1pc) sampled to be underweight having fallen two places below the mean.
The data revealed a stagnation in the proportion of underweight children in the country which only declined by a percentage point in eight years.
In 2014, KNBS reported the proportion of underweight children at 11 per cent marking a five-point decline from 16.1 per cent recorded in 2008/09, and an 8-point fall from the country’s all time high of 18.7 per cent in 1993.
The country’s proportion of severely underweight children declined to 1.8 per cent in 2022 down from 2.3 in 2014, 3.6 per cent in 2008/09, 4.2 per cent in 2003, 5 per cent in 1998 and 5.8 per cent in 1993.
Kenya’s population of overweight children also recorded a decline from one in twenty-five children in 2014 (4.1pc) to one in at least thirty-three children (3.2pc) in 2022, 4.7pc in 2008/09, 5.5pc in 2003 and 6.3pc in 1998, marking a steady decrease over time.
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