The County is strongly committed to reducing and laying the groundwork for eliminating child poverty as a key feature of the CDA and PRS.

Children are at high risk of becoming the next generation of impoverished citizens unless substantive measures are taken to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Poverty reduction efforts must have children at the core.

Children make up the majority of the population of the County. Nationally, around 17 percent of child deaths are attributable to malaria and another 20 percent to preventable environmental diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.

Almost forty percent of children are growth-stunted from poor nutrition, about one third of underfives are severely underweight, and recent estimates indicate that one in five deaths in children under-five is attributable to malnutrition.

Less than half of all births are delivered by a health professional, which contributes to an unacceptably high (and apparently rising) maternal mortality rate.

Furthermore, young female citizens suffer the brunt of the epidemic of gender based violence (GBV). The majority of girls have their first child before reaching the age of 18 due to forced early marriages and rape. As a result, the HIV infection rate among pregnant female adolescents and young women was 5.7 percent in 2007.

Many of the young people have spent more time engaged in war than in school.

Nationally, almost 35 percent of the population has never attended school, including nearly 44 percent of females. Illiteracy rates among children and young people remain high at 68 percent (male 55 percent and female 81 percent).

As discussed above, only a fraction of classrooms in the County is in good condition with furniture and functioning latrines, and textbooks are scarce. With educational levels low and youth unemployment on the increase, the County’s young people lack the necessary tools to make productive contributions to the social and economic development of the nation.

Children and youth also have limited access to justice or the protection and enforcement of their rights under the legal system.

Protecting the rights of children will contribute to achieving poverty reduction goals and ensure the active participation of children and young people in supporting good governance and the growth agenda over the long term.

County authorities will make special efforts to ensure that its institutions, policies and processes consider the needs of children and youth as a priority by implementing a human rights approach to development and an inclusive and participatory governance structure.