No matter how well prepared you think you are nothing can really prepare you for poverty on this scale and all of the ways it spreads its tentacles into every corner of a society. The quality of facilities, goods and services all get dragged down. People get more aggressive. Theft goes up. If you build up something nice, you have to guard it more jealously making you even more of a target for resentment and theft.
There's little point in getting medical advice when you won't be able to afford
treatment so many don't bother. All forms of abuse go up; spousal abuse, child abuse, substance abuse as people take out their anger and despair on the closest available target. Government officials focus only on making sure they're set for life once their term in office ends making it difficult to make any substantial improvements.
As for assigning blame, there's plenty to go around. Corruption, at all levels of government is the most obvious target. Western countries who have tied loans to lowering trade protections with markets that can't possibly compete is another.
If fixing it were easy, someone would have done it by now. And yet there is hope. Kenya has taken some encouraging steps over the last few years. Education has always been a high priority and one can't help but get the feeling that the place isn't all that far away from really getting it together. In terms of human capital, Kenya is a wealthy place. If we could only translate it into financial capital, then we'd really be getting places.