Poverty has been a key challenge and has remained persistently high in Kenya. Several
measures have been undertaken towards poverty alleviation. However, poverty has
remained pervasive in many parts of the country. In Busia county poverty rate has
remained persistently high. To alleviate poverty, it is important to understand the specific
factors affecting poverty in the specific areas or counties. This paper presents an
analysis of factors affecting poverty in Busia County with an aim of contributing to efforts
towards poverty alleviation.
The logistic model is used to analyze factors affecting poverty in Busia using the KIHBS
2005/6 data. The results indicate that age, marital status, family size and ownership of
assets such as land and livestock significantly affect the poverty status. The variables
that are negatively correlated with poverty include age of the household head and asset
(land and livestock) ownership. Marital status and size of the household are positively
correlated with the probability of being poor. Religions, education, other income sources,
practicing agriculture, transfers, access to credit do not significantly affect poverty status
in the county. The study recommends that the government should enhance assistance to
farmers by providing education, market, subsidies, extension services, research and
development together with other support required to improve in their productivity and
income growth. Policy makers should also focus on family planning awareness
campaigns to reduce the dependency ratio and promoting investment amongst the youth
these efforts will lead to increased income and poverty reduction in the county.