Country Program: Kenya
Population
Average Life Expectancy
Child Mortality Rate
Human Development Index
Eye Health in Kenya:
Kenya has a current population of 57 million. It has a democratic government and is known to be a relatively stable country, but struggles with corruption, poverty, and ethnic tensions. The last few decades have seen economic growth, but over 30% of the country’s population still lives below the UN poverty line of $1.90 per day. Kenya is ranked 152nd out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index (HDI). The index value ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 is the worst and 1 is the best value. Kenya is at 0.58.
Out of the UN’s 17 sustainable development goals, Kenya faces challenges with many of them. On a positive note, since the AIDS epidemic ravaged the country in the 1980s and 90s, the average life expectancy has increased from 50 in 2005 to almost 70 in 2024.
Child mortality has decreased from 76 in 2005 to 37 per 1000 children under 5 years old. The population growth rate is now 2.06% per year.
Kenya faces a growing eye health crisis, exacerbated by its rapidly expanding population. An estimated 7 million people (12% of the population) suffer from vision impairment severe enough to hinder daily life, including 1.2 million children and youth under 18. The development of eye health services and the training of qualified personnel have not kept pace with this population growth. Kenya has only 100-120 practicing ophthalmologists (approximately 2 per million inhabitants), along with just 6 opticians and 8 Ophthalmic Clinical Officers (OCOs) per million (source: International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness – IAPB).
Pediatric eye care services are particularly scarce. Only eight ophthalmologists in the entire country are qualified to perform eye surgery on children. Furthermore, there are no specialized training programs for OCOs or opticians in pediatric eye care.Â
Kenya’s eye health crisis faces two major obstacles: the health issues themselves and the lack of money to address them. Many, especially children, cannot afford treatment due to widespread poverty. Childhood blindness or visual impairment severely restricts access to education and future opportunities.
People living below poverty line
People with visual impairments
Children with visual impairments
Ophthalmologists nationwide
Despite Kenya’s commitment to eye health since the 1999 launch of WHO’s Vision 2020, progress remains slow. The first national strategy (2012-2020) failed to achieve its targets, and the current strategy (2020-2025) still grapples with the same challenges: a shortage of qualified professionals, inadequate training, poor data, and unequal access between urban and rural areas. Kenya’s low Cataract Surgery Rate (just over 700 per million, compared to the Vision 2020 target of 3,000) highlights the scale of the problem. Right to Sight’s focus on training eye care professionals offers a long-term solution to combat preventable blindness.
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