Thursday, May 31, 2007

Marriage and Kenya's economic wellbeing/future

This article got me thinking about something that is an increasing phenomena in Kenya, but is rarely talked about amid all our many other problems. To what extent does the increase in divorces and single-parenthood impact our ability to forge forward as an economy? Although no real data is readily available on divorce rates in Kenya or even trends, anecdotally, its obvious that this has increased as has separation/desertion. As afar as singleparenthood goes, available data suggests this around 25% of all families which is not as bad as USA (34%).
Sheer economies of scale would suggest that stable married/come-we-stay couples would be able to earn more and create an environment under which children would flourish and be successful. The inverse is not always the case i.e. that single parent families and divorce couples don't lead to successful children, but it does mean that the success path for the children is much more difficult.
The question is, is Kenya supportive of marriages?

1 comment:

jomet said...

The article would have been more comprehensive had it dealt with the result of one-parent homes (from War). This could have been in the US, Japan, Russia etc.

In the end, the data is available and we know people (mainly men) got killed during these conflicts. Did the children raised in those single parent homes fare worse than their two-parent peers?