In Kenya, undernutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, exists alongside overweight, obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases.

Although Kenya has made substantive progress in reducing the prevalence of stunting in children under five (from 35% in 2008 to 26% in 2014), 26% of children under five are still stunted and 11% of them are underweight, while about 4% are overweight or obese.

Stunting is highest in the Coast, Eastern, and Rift Valley regions. Eleven out of 47 counties have a stunting prevalence of above 30%, a level categorized as severe. While wasting among children under five is relatively low nationally (4%), it is 14% in the Northern region.

Kenya’s neonatal mortality and children under five mortality rates also remain high.

Iron deficiency (26%) and anaemia (42.6%) are high among pregnant women in Kenya, which negatively affects the health and development of the mother and her unborn baby.

Maternal deaths make up to 15% of all deaths among women of reproductive age, equaling approximately 7,300 women dying each year.

Without scaled up and sustained efforts to address malnutrition in Kenya, the country’s long-term development will be seriously affected. Strategic planning is key to achieving good nutritional status in the country.

Nutrition International has been working in Kenya since 2006 to improve health and nutrition in the country. We focus on:

• Providing technical assistance to the national government in developing the Kenya Nutrition Action Plans and related policy documents at sub-national and sectoral levels
• Providing support to coordination and delivery of multisectoral nutrition interventions at subnational level
• Supporting counties in developing their own nutrition action plans
• Improving maternal nutrition by maintaining a supply of iron and folic acid supplements, and increasing skilled birth attendance
• Promoting neonatal survival by ensuring safe delivery and improving neonatal safety by promoting the use of Chlorhexidine for cord care
• Supporting delivery of two doses of vitamin A each year for all children under five
• Increasing the use of zinc and oral rehydration salts to treat diarrhoea and improve child survival
• Promoting adolescent nutrition and health by providing support to the ministries of Health and Education to deliver nutrition education and weekly iron and folic acid supplementation to adolescents to combat anaemia
• Providing technical and financial support to government for a coordinated strategy for the development of and capacity building for maize flour fortification
• Providing technical and financial support to the Ministry of Health to strengthen national level coordination of food fortification interventions in the country
• Increasing the availability of adequately fortified maize flour that is compliant to fortification standards through capacity-building of maize flour millers, premix suppliers and public health officers to implement fortification activities, as well as monitoring and enforcement of related legislation

Country Director, Kenya
Martha Nyagaya
Email: mnyagaya@NutritionIntl.org

Nutrition International Kenya
Avenue 5 Building, 1st Floor
Rose Avenue (off Lenana Road)
PO Box 22296 – 00505
Nairobi, Kenya

Telephone: +254 709 638 000