Senior editors and nutrition media champions met in Nairobi on Friday for a Media Roundtable on Nutrition Education and Advocacy, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Health and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Kenya.
The meeting shed light on Kenya’s mounting nutrition challenges, with undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and a marked increase in the consumption of processed, fatty, salty, sugary, and less nutritious foods contributing to rising overweight and obesity rates across the country.

“According to the 2022 KDHS, 18 percent of children under five are stunted, 10 percent are underweight, three percent are overweight, and 42 percent of pregnant women experience iron deficiency anaemia,” said Madam Veronica Kirogo, Head of the Division of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Ministry of Health. “This translates into an annual loss of Ksh 373.9 billion, or 6.9 percent of our GDP as per the Cost of Hunger in Africa Study of 2019.”

Madam Ruth Okowa, GAIN Kenya Country Director, expressed concern over the rising burden of diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases. She observed that food consumption patterns in Kenya have been greatly influenced by urbanisation, economic growth, and westernisation of diets, leading to increased consumption of highly processed and less nutritious foods.

A recent study conducted by the Access to Nutrition Initiative (ATNI) revealed that 90% of packaged food and beverage products in Kenya would require health warning labels under the newly released Kenya Nutrient Profile Model (KNPM) and three other models. Ms. Okowa called for stronger partnerships with the media to amplify nutrition as a national priority.