Social Predictors of Food Insecurity: The Case of Yatta Constituency, Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

In the year 2009, it was indicated that 9.8 million Kenyans were food insecure. In 2018 Kenya ranked number 77 worldwide of countries where hunger is serious with a hunger index of 23.2. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the level of food security and the relationship between demographic variables and household food security. The study was purely analytical using a sample of 388 poor households. Data was collected using interview schedules. To test food security level, a modified Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) score was used. To find out if any relationship exists between demographic variables and household food security, Chi-square test was used. Findings indicated that 18.7 percent of the households were food secure and that 63.5 percent of the households experienced severe food insecurity. The other findings were that there is no relationship between food security and gender and that there is a relationship between food security and education, occupation, and the number of children. Since the major variables that are found to contribute to food insecurity are educational level, employment and family size of the household, key interventions could be one the introduction of Extension Education with a vibrant Functional Literacy, two actualizing the three pillars of the green revolution namely; maximization of space, maximization of time and use of high yielding varieties and three introduction of community programs meant to educate the community on family size and food security.