Our Issues
Exit Poverty has identified underlying causes of poverty in Kenya are the major issues facing Kenya community.

Economic Block
Weak overall infrastructure for the country means jobs are scarce, leaving people with little opportunity for employment. There are considerable obstacles for starting a small business in Kenya as well. The poor,  the women and other disadvantaged groups do not cannot obtain credit and other financial services needed to start small businesses and undertake other activities that create income as the micro and small enterprises don't have  business support.

Foreign investors take fewer risks where there is corruption and poor governances. Growth does happen faster when political and economic leaders  are not active engaged in creating the right environment for trade and investment.

Poor Governance
The problem of bad governance in Kenya was apparent but mostly ignored because it was compensated for by  economic growth. The advent of the global economic crisis, however, has highlighted the seriousness of the problem. The impact of bad governance on the poor is real, systematically affects many people, and undermines the efforts to reduce poverty in the country.

It major problem is due to lack of political will; the public’s ignorance of rights and the law; lack of accessibility to public information; legal language and practice lagging behind social change; conflict between customary and formal law; extreme poverty and non-affordability of the legal services; impunity of law enforcement officers in their violation of the law; poor conditions of work for law enforcement agencies hence poor moral; poor management of law enforcement institutions; and inadequate physical infrastructure among others. all too often, being poor means being powerless.

Corruption
Corruption  threatens good governance, sustainable development, democratic process, and fair business practices. Unresponsive public services and public procurement systems that seems to largely work in favors of politically connected individuals have contributed to high incidences of corruption  in Kenya.

Corruption feeds ongoing political and economic failures in Kenya by impeding market development, driving away investment, increasing the cost of doing business, and eroding the legitimacy of the law.It is difficult for the majority of the population to escape the poverty in Kenya, when government money is used improperly.

Tribalism

Kenya was burning during the 2008 post-election violence due to tribalism and ethnicism. Political and ethnic loyalties have long intertwined in Kenya as this shows volatile the mix can be. Every thing that is wrong with Kenya can be traced to tribalism. No matter how hard Kenya try  to progres, no substantive achievements will be made so long as it rely on tribalism

The tribalists are willing to hire people from their tribe who may not otherwise be the qualified for the given job. Such actions deprive the nation of the right people for the right job, Therefore  they look for ways that will strengthen their tribes at the expense of the nation thus divert national attention and resources. 

Cross Cutting Issues
 These issues go beyond the purely economic dimension to encompass core social and human values that are part and parcel of the MDGs; poverty reduction, gender and the creative industries. The cross-cutting issues with economic, governance, corruption and tribalism. No Sustainable development can be achieved without an integrated approach on cross cutting issues:

• Youth
  The political, economic, social challenges  facing the youth in Kenya today that have a significant impact on youth’s ability to become active citizens and economic actors. Despite the commitment of  leaders to develop Kazi Kwa Vijana (Jobs for Youth)  aimed at creating jobs for youth, the Kenya youth unemployment rate very high
  Women
• Women
  Men still have a monopoly on decision making at every level from village councils to national government, so even when policies are introduced, they often ignore the needs of women. Women are powerful forces for change, amazingl resourceful in their fight to achieve a better future yet political, economic and social system does not support them to unlash their power.
• ICT
  Lack of ICT development means missing;  access to information  for transparency and accountability thus reducing corruption and improving governance, employment opportunities to youth,  opportunity for women to start and grow business.
• Agriculture
  Small scale farmers lacks the tools, better farming supplies, training, and support networks to improve agriculture at every step: planting a seed, tending the soil, selling a crop, and setting good policy.
• Water
   Inadequate water supply has hampered growth and  entrepreneurs.  Families living in poor informal settlements are paying more  compared to upper class. The reasons for water shortages or lack of it are: water has not been piped to many places, clogs water supplies, delay in repairing, vandalism, stall water projects and  uncoordinated laws affecting
• Energy
  By itself, energy is of little interest to most people. Instead, it is the services that energy provides that are central to practically all aspects of people’s lives, such as access to water, agricultural productivity, health care, education, job creation, gender equality, and environmental sustainability, Productive and income generating activities are enabled as a result of access to energy services.
• Urban Program
  For many of the urban poor, housing, infrastructure and services remain inadequate. Most urban dwellers have inadequate provision in the areas of water, sanitation, drainage, garbage collection and health and education services. There is an urgent need to develop a national policy on slums and squatter settlements in order to focus special attention to the unique sector and cross-cutting problems prevailing in slums.