Besides the capital Opuwo, the region contains the municipality of Outjo, the town Khorixas, the self-governed village Kamanjab, and hundreds of small settlements like Otjomotjira.

[8] Among households, 73% had safe water, 66% no toilet facility, 22% electricity for lighting, 72% access to radio, and 81% had wood or charcoal for cooking.

In terms of household's main sources of income, 35% derived it from farming, 37% from wages and salaries, 7% cash remittances, 7% from business or non-farming, and 10% from pension.

[7] According to the 2012 Namibia Labour Force Survey, unemployment in the Kunene Region stood at 27.0%.

Previously the rivalry was mainly with the United Democratic Front (UDF), but recently other parties show good results in Kunene's constituencies.

In November 2008, SWAPO activists and politicians called for organization to "destroy" the UDF government in Kunene.

SWAPO also claimed that UDF and Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) were "sabotaging" local government initiatives in the region due to incompetence.

Business leaders based in Opuwo, who are mostly Ovambo people, formed the Kaoko Development League which supports the proposed dam.

The dam would bring in economic development to much of the Region but would interfere with the traditional way of life of the Himba people who reside in the area.

[11] In the 2004 election for the National Assembly of Namibia, voters in Kunene Region supported numerous parties.

[20] February 2012, traditional Himba chiefs[21] issued two separate Declarations[22] to the African Union and to the OHCHR of the United Nations.

The first, titled "Declaration of the most affected Ovahimba, Ovatwa, Ovatjimba and Ovazemba against the Orokawe Dam in the Baynes Mountains"[23] outlines the objections from regional Himba chiefs and communities that reside near the Kunene River.

September 2012, the United Nations special rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples visited the Himba, and heard their concerns that they do not have recognized traditional authorities, and that they are placed under the jurisdictions of chiefs of neighboring dominant tribes, who make decisions on behalf of the minority communities.

[25] November 23, 2012, hundreds of Himba and Zemba from Omuhonga and Epupa region protested in Okanguati against Namibia’s plans to construct a dam in the Kunene River in the Baynes Mountains, against increasing mining operations on their traditional land and human rights violations against them.

They expressed their frustration over their traditional chiefs not being recognized as "Traditional Authorities" by the Government of Namibia,[27] Namibia's plans to build the Orokawe dam in the Baynes Mountains at the Cunene River without consulting with the Himba that do not consent to the construction plans, culturally inappropriate education, the illegal fencing of parts of their traditional land, the lack of land rights to the territory that they have lived upon for centuries, and against the implementation of the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002.

In 2012, Chinese company Namibia East China Non- Ferrous Investments explored the Kunene region discovering enough a deposit of 2.37 billion tons of iron ore, enough for the next 100 years.