KAIS 2007 1 - Kenya National AIDS & STI Control Programme ...

Table 14.8b presents findings on orphanoond among children aged 0‐17 years. Overall,11.1% of children 0‐17 years of age were orphans, translating to an estimated 1.78 millionchildren orphaned nationwide. There were no significant differences by sex of the child, butthe percent of children orphaned varied significantly with age, residence, and province. Thepercentage orphaned increased with age from 7.8% among 0‐4 year olds to 21.5% among 15‐17 year olds. In rural areas, 11.5% of children were orphaned compared to 8.6% of children inurban areas. Nyanza province had the highest percent of children orphaned at 20.9% andNorth Eastern province had the lowest percent at 6.6%, compared to other provinces (7.4%‐11.7%). This means that nearly two times as many children under 18 years of age wereorphaned in Nyanza province as compared to the national level.Similar to other population‐based surveys, including the 2003 KDHS, a vulnerable child wasdefined as a child aged 0‐17 years living in household in which an adult aged 18‐64 yearshad either been very ill for at least three of the 12 months preceding the survey; living in ahousehold where an adult had died in the 12 months preceding the survey; or a child whosemother or father was not living in the same household but had been very ill (too sick to workor do normal activities) for at least three months of 12 months preceding the survey. A childcould be counted in one or all three of these categories (chronically ill adult, adult death inhousehold or chronically ill parent). Additionally, a child could be considered both anorphan and a vulnerable child, but was only counted once in the overall orphan orvulnerable child (OVC) category in Table 14.8b.Four percent (4.0%) of children under the age of 18 years had a chronically ill parent living inanother household, 1.8% had a household death in the 12 months prior to the survey, and5.5% had a chronically ill adult in the household. Overall, 5.7% of children under 18 years ofage were vulnerable children and 15.8% of all children were OVCs based on the definitionsprovided in this section. Similar patterns to those observed for orphans were observed forOVCs. Children in female‐headed households were significantly more likely to be OVCsthan those in male‐headed households (25.0% compared to 11.4%, respectively). Asignificantly higher percent of children in Nyanza (29.3%) were OVCs compared to childrenin other provinces (8.7%‐16.4%). Children in rural areas were marginally more likely to beOVCs than children in urban areas (16.9% versus 14.5%, respectively). The percent ofchildren who were OVC differed greatly across age groups, from 9.7% among children 0‐4years of age to 28.4% of children aged 15‐17 years.KAIS 2007 262