- Poverty gap
The poverty gap provides an indicator of the resources required to eliminate poverty in a given area. In other words, it is an estimate of how much on average would be needed to bring each household from their current income to the poverty line. It is therefore an important indicator of fiscal decentralisation because each county will want to understand the resources it will need in order to bring its population above the poverty line. The higher the gap as a percentage of the poverty line, the farther most households are below the line. As illustrated in figure 2.10, the poverty gap as a percentage of the poverty line in Kenya is at 12 percent. The poverty gap in rural areas is 1.75 times that in urban areas.
Figure 2.10: Poverty gap as a percentage of poverty line in Kenya and by rural/urban
As seen in figure 2.11 and 2.12, the poverty gap is highest in Tana River (46 percent), Kwale (42 percent), Mandera (32 percent), Wajir (32 percent) and Kilifi (31 percent) Counties. These huge disparities in the poverty gap illustrate the variation in the extent of county requirements to pull the population out of poverty.
Figure 2.11: Poverty gap as a percentage of poverty line by county
Figure 2.12: Poverty gap as a percentage of poverty line nationally