Kenya and Costa Rica - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 200

the political forces are strongly based on tribes. Even the numbers mea-
sured in a census are controversial.
Kenya was one of the first developing countries to adopt a policy of
limiting population. The average number of children for a woman was 8.1
in the late 1960s. This fell to 4.0 in 2012. Surveys report 39% of the women
used birth control. The country has been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic.
Life expectancy has fallen to 53 years from 59 years in the 1980s. The
infection rate is 6.3%, placing it as one of the highest in the world, yet not
as high as its neighbors in southern Africa. The infection rate has declined
a bit since the high point of 2000, due to sex education and awareness.
Moreover, many of the victims have died.
With a population of three million, the capital of Nairobi generates half
of the country's GDP and provides a quarter of the jobs. The air is polluted
from industry and automobiles. Less than half of the households have
drinking water piped in. Its rivers and streams are choked with uncol-
lected garbage and sewer overflows. It generates 1,500 tons of solid waste
every day, of which 40% is not collected. 13 Similar problems are found in
big cities like Mombasa and Kisumu. Indoor air pollution is a problem
everywhere, in rural as well as urban homes. Cooking is generally fueled
by wood, charcoal, or dung. In developing countries like Kenya, the World
Health Organization estimates it accounts for a 3% to 4% decrease in life
expectancy. 14 Women and young children are exposed most.
In 1977 Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement to address
some of these problems. This paid poor women a few shillings to plant
trees that would provide fuel and prevent erosion. Eventually, her pro-
gram planted more than thirty million trees in Kenya and elsewhere.
Professionally, Dr. Maathai taught veterinary science. Politically, she
served as a member of parliament and as an assistant minister for environ-
mental issues. Earlier during a protest against building a huge skyscraper
in one of central Nairobi's few parks, she had been beaten unconscious by
the police. At another protest, she was tear-gassed. In the mid-1960s as a
young woman, she had studied biology at the University of Pittsburgh,
where she had become aware of the citizen movement to clean up the
city's air pollution. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win
the Noble Prize.
Nairobi was selected to be the headquarters of the United National Envi-
ronmental Program. The choice was intended to recognize the country's
outstanding natural setting, and as a gesture to sub-Saharan Africa.