RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF STARVATION: Coping Strategies for Food Security among Women in Kenya

Abstract

Food insecurity in Kenya has been a big challenge amongst many households. In the pursuit of family survival in situations where the family granaries are empty, women are known to bear the most responsibility in ensuring that family members do not starve to death. The key question is how they cope in such situations despite high poverty levels and marginalization in society. The framework of focus was Article 43 (1)(c) of the Constitution of Kenya (2010), which states that “everybody should be free from hunger at all times, and have food of acceptable quality”. Nevertheless, despite this recognition, more than 10 million Kenyans continue to experience chronic hunger –some to the point of starvation and death, particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine the coping strategies adopted by women when threatened by food shortages. It also explores the models of resilience and adaptation to hunger amongst 597 women in 15 counties in Kenya. The data was collected by the African Women‟s Study Centre (University of Nairobi) using both quantitative and qualitative methods with a key purpose to document their experiences in food security. The results revealed that women depend on various coping strategies and it is anticipated that these findings can be used to inform future policies and programmes for interventions on food insecurity.