Abstract:
Kenya has been experiencing significant economic growth over the last few decades. The effect of this economic progress has however been felt by a limited segment of the population, while the vast majority fails to benefit from this prosperity. Extreme inequality tends to slow down the development process for all economic classes, hence the need to consider ways of sharing economic prosperity as proposed by John Rawls’ theory of distributive justice. The three-fold objectives of this study are: to describe the effect of applying Kenya Vision 2030 on wealth inequality between 2008 and 2016; to establish the extent to which Kenya Vision 2030 is in harmony with the aims of Sustainable Development Goal 10; to describe the factors that may hinder the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 10 in Kenya. Inequality does not manifest only in income differences, but also in the unfair distribution of opportunities to develop an individual’s full potential. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a normative framework of issues, objectives and policies that underpin sustainable development. The methodology of the paper was to measure the extent of Kenya’s income inequality using the Gini index, while the inequality of outcomes was measured using the loss in human development index due to inequality. The findings of the research indicate that through Kenya Vision 2030, the country succeeded in marginally reducing the level of inequality of outcomes while failing to address income inequality. This is explained largely by low financing in 6 critical sectors outlined by the World Bank, which plagued all efforts against inequality. The main recommendation offered to the government is to diversify and increase the country’s export capacity, which would afford Kenya the capacity to battle inequality effectively.
