Beyond the Annual and Aggregate Measurement of Household Inequality: The Case Study of Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya

Abstract

This paper investigates household seasonal food expenditure inequality in the rural Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya using the extended decomposition of Gini and primary data referred from February 2018 to January 2019. The new elements introduced by the paper are the disaggregation of the food expenditure by source of access (purchase, auto-consumption, and gifts); inclusion of traditional species in the food categories; the features of the area investigated; a novel focus on household economic disparities in flower enclave; and the comparison between the annual and monthly level of inequality to understand the seasonality in household inequality. The results highlight the positive contribution of the subsistence sector to the reduction of inequality during the harvesting period of respective food category; and the need for a well-coordinated set of poverty, food security and agricultural development policies to contribute to the achievement of the first goal of Agenda 2030.