Unreported World

Kenyan born reporter Aidan Hartley and director George Waldrum report from Kenya on the exploding population problem, one of the root causes of the country's recent violence.

Kenya's population crisis may yet lead to the complete implosion of what has been Africa's most stable democracy. The link between terrible violence and the fact that the land just cannot sustain Kenya's growing numbers has gone almost unnoticed by the international media and NGOs.

Hartley and Waldrum begin their journey in the Rift Valley, western Kenya, where long after the political agreement the killings go on. Much of the violence is driven by a land-hungry mass of frustrated young men who resort to crime rather than accept poverty and hunger. In the Rift Valley, the battle for land has spiralled out of control.

Arriving at a smouldering village just hours after one massacre the team finds the bones and the skull of a small child who was burnt in the attack. Locals tell Hartley that 13 other people were slaughtered and the local police could do nothing as they were outnumbered by the attackers.

The team visits the hospital where the survivors were taken. Hartley finds 10-year-old Miriam, whose mother was decapitated, and 12-year-old Emma, both with severe burns. The doctors are working overtime to save lives but cannot cope with their increasing number of patients. The ongoing conflict is stretching already severely limited facilities - as a result the two badly burned girls have to share a bed.

The team moves on to a nearby slum where they find a school buckling under the weight of the population explosion. One class has 120 children and there's only one toilet for 1400 boys.

A failure of family planning lies at the heart of the population crisis. Tradition and a lack of health care are the reasons why poor Kenyans are having large families - leading to an ecological collapse.

In the rural area of the Rift Valley the team find one family that is the size of a small village. The river at the end of this family farm has now become nothing more than a trickle and the land has been sub-divided so many times between male offspring that it's now failing to support the family.

Hartley negotiates access to one tribal militia group called the Saboat Land Defence Force or SLDF. No international journalists have filmed them before. This violent criminal gang based in the forests of Mount Elgon is reportedly responsible for more than 500 killings.

The boys who make up the gang claim a lack of land and employment has led them to take up arms. They demonstrate their AK-47's and training in the undergrowth, vowing to fight the government to the death until their claims are recognized.

Kenya is a country often described as a 'stable democracy'. But as the population rises and too many people draw on too few resources, Kenya's future looks uncertain.