Kenya

Elevation:
arable land 9.8%; permanent crops 0.9%; permanent pasture 37.4%
Forest: 6.1%
Other: 45.8% (2011 est.)
Population – distribution:
People and Society
Kenya has experienced dramatic population growth since the mid-20th century as a result of its high birth rate and its declining mortality rate. More than 40% of Kenyans are under the age of 15 because of sustained high fertility, early marriage and childbearing, and an unmet need for family planning. Kenya’s persistent rapid population growth strains the labor market, social services, arable land, and natural resources. Although Kenya in 1967 was the first sub-Saharan country to launch a nationwide family planning program, progress in reducing the birth rate has largely stalled since the late 1990s, when the government decreased its support for family planning to focus on the HIV epidemic. Government commitment and international technical support spurred Kenyan contraceptive use, decreasing the fertility rate (children per woman) from about 8 in the late 1970s to less than 5 children twenty years later, but it has plateaued at just over 3 children today.
Kenya was the first sub-Saharan African country to adopt a national family planning program and one of a small handful to undergo a demographic transition to much lower fertility. Since the late 1970s, contraceptive prevalence has doubled, and the total fertility rate in Kenya has fallen from 8.0 children per woman to about half that number. Current estimates on fertility range from 3.1 to 5 births per woman. Kenya now has a birthrate that is among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, at between 28 and 39 per 1,000 population (2007 estimate). At the same time, according to various 2005 to 2007 estimates, life expectancy at birth has fallen to between 47 and 55 years. Current estimates place the death rate at between 11 and 16 deaths per 1,000 population and infant mortality rate at 57 to 74 per 1,000 live births. The mortality rate among children under five was 120 per 1,000 births in 2004, up from 96 per 1,000 in 1970. The age structure of the population is very young, with 42 percent of the population under age 15 and only 2.6 percent 65 or older. The median age is 18.6 years.
Population:
47,615,739
Nationality:
Kenyan(s)
Ethnic groups:
Kikuyu 22%, Luhya 14%, Luo 13%, Kalenjin 12%, Kamba 11%, Kisii 6%, Meru 6%, other African 15%, non-African (Asian, European, and Arab) 1%
Languages:
English (official), Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages
Religions:
Christian 83% (Protestant 47.7%, Catholic 23.4%, other Christian 11.9%), Muslim 11.2%, Traditionalists 1.7%, other 1.6%, none 2.4%, unspecified 0.2% (2009 est.)
People of African descent make up about 97 percent of the population; they are divided into about 40 ethnic groups belonging to three linguistic families: Bantu, Cushitic, and Nilotic. Bantu-speaking Kenyans comprise three groups: western (Luhya), highlands (including the Kikuyu and the Kamba), and coastal (Mijikenda) Bantu. The major groups of Nilotic speakers are the river–lake (Luo), highlands (Kalenjin), and plains or eastern (Masai). The Cushitic-speaking groups include the Oromo and Somali. The Kikuyu, who make up 22 percent of the population, constitute Kenya’s largest ethnic group. The next largest groups are the Luhya (14 percent), Luo (13 percent), Kalenjin (12 percent), and Kamba (11 percent). Additional groups include the Kisii (6 percent), Meru (6 percent), and other African (15 percent). Small numbers of people of Indian, Pakistani, and European descent live in the interior, and there are some Arabs along the coast. The official languages of Kenya are Swahili and English; any indigenous languages from the three language families also are spoken.
About three-quarters of Kenyans profess some form of Christianity, although fewer are affiliated with a church. About 40 to 45 percent of Kenyans are Protestant, while 30 percent are Roman Catholic. Estimates for the percentage of the population that adheres to indigenous beliefs and to Islam vary widely, ranging from 10 to 25 percent for the former and 7 to 20 percent for Muslims. One percent are Hindus and Sikhs. The population includes very few professed atheists.
Kenya is a source of emigrants and a host country for refugees. In the 1960s and 1970s, Kenyans pursued higher education in the UK because of colonial ties, but as British immigration rules tightened, the US, the then Soviet Union, and Canada became attractive study destinations. Kenya’s stagnant economy and political problems during the 1980s and 1990s led to an outpouring of Kenyan students and professionals seeking permanent opportunities in the West and southern Africa. Nevertheless, Kenya’s relative stability since its independence in 1963 has attracted hundreds of thousands of refugees escaping violent conflicts in neighboring countries; Kenya shelters more than 300,000 Somali refugees as of April 2017.
Education
Historical records shows that Kenyans had access to education as far back as 1728 with Swahili manuscript Utendi wa Tambuka (Book of Heraclius) attesting to the fact. The Christians missionaries interacted with locals in the coastal town of Mombasa and set up one of the earliest mission schools in the country at Rabai in 1846. With the expansion of the railway from Mombasa to Uganda, the missionaries expanded their work into Kenya’s interior. The first school in western Kenya was established at Kaimosi in 1902. During the colonial era, the number of Kenyans with exposure to education steadily increased and a good number of them were privileged to proceed abroad for further education.
Estimates of the Kenyan literacy rate range between 75 and 85 percent, with the female rate about 10 points lower than the male. The education system, beset by non-enrollment and low completion rates, offers eight years of compulsory primary education, beginning at age six, four years of secondary school, and four years of university education. The language of instruction from the secondary stage onward is English. Primary enrollment since 2002 has included about 75 percent of children. This enrollment rate remains below the nearly 100 percent rate in the 1980s prior to the introduction, under donor pressure, of user fees. The primary school completion rate in 2002 was less than one-half. Primary school enrollment has increased under the Kibaki government, which immediately fulfilled its campaign pledge to abolish user charges and special fees. The government now offers universal free primary education, a change from earlier cost-sharing arrangements between the government and parents. Secondary school enrollment in 2002 included only about 23 percent of the relevant age group and remains low.
The government of Kenya recognizes education as the primary means of sustainable economic development, social mobility, national cohesion, and social development. This has led to the implementation of programs that rapidly expanded the education sector. Challenges and gaps in the education sector include lack of comprehensive strategies for teacher development and provision of holistic early childhood care and education. Ineffective and uncoordinated monitoring and evaluation of education outcomes and programs has exacerbated weaknesses. To solve these issues the Kenyan government came up with a plan called The National Education Sector Plan 2013-2018 (NESP), which has four goals:
1. An education administration structure that:
- Provides equitable access to education for all children,
Enables central, county, and local authorities and schools access to information,
Has agencies and processes in place to provide quality assurance of learning.
2. A schooling system delivering the compulsory core curriculum in a safe environment in order to meet each individual’s academic, professional, and technical needs and national, social and economic goals.
3. An integrated curriculum framework for basic education that:
- Enables creativity, practicability, and productivity
Is based on pedagogies that stimulate intellectual and practical qualities of all learners,
Supports a culture of democracy, tolerance, social, and environmental awareness.
4. A structure of tertiary education that fosters academic quality, rigor, and research necessary for knowledge based society and expands the learning pathways for young people.
Kenya has five public universities and about twice that many private institutions of higher education. Since the 1980s, there has been a tremendous expansion in universities in response to high demand. The public universities are the University of Nairobi (founded in 1956); Kenyatta University (1972), in Nairobi; the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (1981), near Nairobi; Egerton University (1939), near Nakuru; and Moi University (1984), outside Eldoret. The government also provides opportunities for higher education through several polytechnic institutes and several dozen teacher-training colleges.
Economy
Since independence was achieved in 1963, Kenya’s economy has contained both privately owned and state-run enterprises. Most of the country’s business is in private hands (with a large amount of foreign investment), but the government also shapes the country’s economic development through various regulatory powers and “parastatals,” or enterprises that it partly or wholly owns. The aim of this policy is to achieve economic growth and stability, generate employment, and maximize foreign earnings by achieving high levels of agricultural exports while substituting domestically produced goods for those that have been imported. For a decade after independence this policy showed great promise as rising wages, employment, and government revenue provided the means for expanding health services, education, transportation, and communication. But problems that arose with the rise of global oil prices in 1973 have been aggravated by periodic drought and accelerating population growth, and Kenya’s economy has been unable to maintain a favorable balance of trade while addressing the problems of chronic poverty and growing unemployment.
Since 2014, Kenya has been ranked as a lower middle income country because its per capita GDP crossed a World Bank threshold. While Kenya has a growing entrepreneurial middle class and steady growth, its economic and development trajectory could be impaired by weak governance and corruption. Although reliable numbers are hard to find, unemployment and under-employment are extremely high, and could be near 40% of the population. Agriculture remains the backbone of the Kenyan economy, contributing one-third of GDP. About 75% of Kenya’s population of roughly 44.2 million work at least part-time in the agricultural sector, including livestock and pastoral activities. Over 75% of agricultural output is from small-scale, rain-fed farming or livestock production.
Successfully raised capital in the global bond market. Kenya issued its first sovereign bond offering in mid-2014. Nairobi has contracted with a Chinese company to construct a new standard gauge railway connecting Mombasa and Nairobi, with completion expected in June 2017. In 2013, the country adopted a devolved system of government with the creation of 47 counties, and is in the process of devolving state revenues and responsibilities to the counties. Inflationary pressures and sharp currency depreciation peaked in early 2012 but have since abated following low global food and fuel prices and monetary interventions by the Central Bank. Drought-like conditions in parts of the country have pushed 2017 inflation above 8%. Chronic budget deficits, including a shortage of funds in mid-2015, hampered the government’s ability to implement proposed development programs, but the economy is back in balance with many indicators, including foreign exchange reserves, interest rates, and FDI moving in the right direction. Underlying weaknesses were exposed in the banking sector in 2016 when the government was forced to take over three small and under capitalized banks. In 2016, the government enacted legislation that limits interest rates banks can charge on loans and set a rate that banks must pay their depositors. This measure led to a sharp shrinkage of credit in the economy. Tourism holds a significant place in Kenya’s economy.
GDP – real growth rate:
Budget:
Agriculture
The agriculture sector continues to play a vital role in the rural economy. The sector was one of the first to fully devolve the function of service provision to the county governments underscoring the importance of County Governments’ role in ensuring food security. Agriculture is key to Kenya’s economy, contributing 26 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and another 27 per cent of GDP indirectly through linkages with other sectors. The sector employs more than 40 per cent of the total population and more than 70 per cent of Kenya’s rural people. Agriculture in Kenya is large and complex, with a multitude of public, parastatal, non-governmental and private sectors.
The sector accounts for 65 per cent of the export earnings, and provides the livelihood (employment, income and food security needs) for more than 80 per cent of the Kenyan population and contributes to improving nutrition through production of safe, diverse and nutrient dense foods. The sector is also the min driver of the non-agricultural economy including manufacturing, providing inputs and markets for non-agricultural operations such as building/construction, transportation, tourism, education and other social services.
The dynamics of poverty within Kenya are changing and directly influence the country’s agricultural sector. Currently 46 per cent of the population live on less than 1 USD a day, 36.5 per cent are food insecure and 35 per cent of children under five are stunted (chronically malnourished) in Kenya. The country’s population has increased significantly (growing from 11 million in 1970 to 39.5 million in 2011) and at the current rate of growth, it will be double in the next 27 years, reaching 81 million in 2039. As a result of this rapid increase, land parcels in the areas of high agricultural potential are decreasing in size, affecting food production.
Tea, coffee, sisal, pyre-thrum, corn, and wheat are grown in the fertile highlands, one of the most successful agricultural production regions in Africa. Production is mainly on small African owned farms formed from the division of formerly European-owned estates. Livestock predominates in the semi-arid savanna to the north and east. Coconuts, pineapples, cashew nuts, cotton, sugarcane, sisal, and corn are grown in the lower-lying areas.
Despite the importance of agriculture to the economic well-being of the country, the lack of water, infrastructure, and arable land (less than one-tenth of Kenya can be used for agriculture) seriously constrains further expansion. Although the government has made efforts to increase irrigation, it is estimated that only one-fifth to one-fourth of potentially irrigable area has been developed.
Manufacturing
Although Kenya is the most industrially developed country in East Africa, manufacturing still accounts for only 14 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This level of manufacturing GDP represents only a slight increase since independence. Expansion of the sector after independence, initially rapid, has stagnated since the 1980s,
hampered by shortages in hydroelectric power, high energy costs, dilapidated transport infrastructure, endemic corruption, and the dumping of cheap imports. Industrial activity, concentrated around the three largest urban centers, Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu, is dominated by food-processing industries such as grain milling, beer production, and sugarcane crushing, and the fabrication of consumer goods. In addition, a substantial and expanding informal sector engages in small-scale manufacturing of household goods, motor-vehicle parts, and farm implements. About half of the investment in the industrial sector is foreign, with the United Kingdom providing half. The United States is the second largest investor.
Manufacturing is based largely on processing imported goods, although the government supports the development of export-oriented industries. Major industries include agricultural processing, publishing and printing, and the manufacture of textiles and clothing, cement, tires, batteries, paper, ceramics, and leather goods. Assembly plants, which utilize imported parts, produce various kinds of commercial and passenger vehicles and even export a small quantity to other African countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. Steel processing for reexport and for the construction industry is a growing sector, with about a dozen steel mills in operation. The petroleum industry, which was deregulated in 1994, produces diesel and jet fuel from imported crude oil at a refinery near Mombasa and provides a major source of foreign exchange.
Wages in Asia are continuing to rise, and in China’s coastal factories notable increases in wages have occurred over the past 10 years. This has made the country a less attractive manufacturing hub. As a result, factories may relocate; some may move to inland China, Bangladesh or Cambodia but Africa has also appeared on the radar as a
viable option. The World Bank reports that Ethiopian factory wages for unskilled labor are a quarter of Chinese wages. Indeed, East Africa in general is increasingly becoming a focus of attention for the development of manufacturing in Africa; interest in textiles and apparel is particularly high. A report by McKinsey notes that, within sub-Saharan Africa, East African countries, especially Ethiopia and Kenya, are of interest to international apparel buyers. Indeed, for the first time, an Africa country, Ethiopia, has appeared on the list of countries expected to play a more important role in apparel manufacturing. Kenya and Ethiopia are the top two countries in Africa where global apparel buyers expect to start or increase apparel sourcing. Kenya should thus focus on how to manage labor costs and increase productivity because the country currently performs worse than both Uganda and Ethiopia on these metrics.
Mining and Energy
Kenya’s economic development has been tied to its ability to improve energy resources. The emphasis since independence has been on producing hydroelectricity, but access to energy is limited in rural areas, since the bulk of electricity is consumed by the two major urban centers of Nairobi and Mombasa. The largest share of Kenya’s electricity supply comes from hydroelectric stations at dams along the upper Tana River, as well as the Turkwel Gorge Dam in the west. A petroleum fired plant on the coast, geothermal facilities at Olkaria (near Nairobi), and electricity imported from Uganda make up the rest of the supply.
Kenya’s installed capacity stood at 2,142 megawatts a year between 2001 and 2003. The state-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), established in 1997 under the name of Kenya Power Company, handles the generation of electricity, while the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), which is slated for privatization, handles transmission and distribution. Shortfalls of electricity occur periodically, when drought reduces water flow. The government openen two new power stations in 2010, Sondu Miriu (hydroelectric) and Olkaria IV (geothermal), but power demand growth is strong, and demand is still expected to outpace supply during periods of drought.
In order to accommodate this demand, Kenya is building the largest wind farm in Africa, which will produce wind power on a grand scale. The Lake Turkana Wind Power project is a 12-hour drive from Nairobi and, once operational, is set to provide 310 megawatts (MW) of renewable power to the Kenyan national grid. The potential of wind power in terms of reducing carbon emissions is significant. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, in 2016 wind power helped the planet avoid more than 637 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Petroleum fuels constitute the main source of commercial energy in Kenya. Kenya is a net importer of petroleum products and has a refinery owned and managed by the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd (KPRL), an 800 km cross country oil pipeline from Mombasa to Nairobi and Western Kenya with terminals in Nairobi, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kisumu, run by the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). The sector also boasts of over 30 oil importing and marketing companies comprising of five major companies namely Shell, Total, Kenol/Kobil, Oil Libya, Chevron, and other emerging oil companies which include the Government owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK). Petroleum exploration activities have never been as vibrant (upbeat, during the last 13 years) in Kenya as they are at present. To date, a total of fifty six wells have so far been drilled in the country.
Tourism
Kenya is the lone acacia silhouetted on the Savannah against a horizon stretching into eternity. It’s the snow-capped mountain almost on the equator and within sight of harsh deserts. It’s the lush, palm-fringed coastline of the Indian Ocean, it’s the Great Rift Valley that once threatened to tear the continent asunder, and it’s the dense forests reminiscent of the continent’s heart. In short, Kenya is a country of epic landforms that stir our deepest longings for this very special continent.
The tourism sector has exhibited steady growth in most years since independence and by the late 1980s had become the country’s principal source of foreign exchange. Tourists, the largest number from Germany and the United Kingdom, are attracted mainly to the coastal beaches and the game parks, notably, the expansive Tsavo National Park (20,808 square kilometers) in the southeast. Kenya, June 2007 tourist industry organizations have taken steps to address the security problem and to reverse negative publicity. Such steps include establishing a tourist police and launching marketing campaigns in key tourist origin markets. Tourism has seen a substantial revival over the past several years and is the major contributor to the pick-up in the country’s economic growth.
Filling the country’s landscape, adding depth and resonance to Kenya’s age-old story, are some of Africa’s best-known peoples. The Maasai, the Samburu, the Turkana, the Swahili, the Kikuyu: these are the peoples whose histories and daily struggles tell the story of a country as well as the continent. Kenya is the land of the Masai Mara, of wildebeest and zebras migrating in their millions with the great predators of Africa following in their wake, of endangered species like black rhinos managing to maintain their precarious foothold. But Kenya is also home to the red elephants of Tsavo, to Amboseli elephant families in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro and to the massed millions of pink flamingos stepping daintily through lake shallows. Africa is the last great wilderness where these creatures survive. And Kenya is the perfect place to answer Africa’s call of the wild.
The abundance of Kenya’s wildlife owes everything to one of Africa’s most innovative and successful conservation communities. Through some pretty tough love – Kenya pioneered using armed rangers to protect rhinos and elephants – Kenya stopped the emptying of its wilderness and brought its wildlife back from the brink after the poaching holocaust of the 1970s and 1980s. More than that, in places like Laikipia and the Masai Mara, private and community conservancies fuse tourism with community development and wildlife conservation to impressive effect. In other words, if you want your visit to make a difference, you’ve come to the right place.
Banking and Finance
The financial sector includes the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) the primary regulator of the banking industry; 28 domestic and 14 foreign commercial banks with branches, agencies, and other outlets throughout the country; one mortgage finance company; eight representative offices of foreign banks; eleven licensed deposit taking microfinance institutions; 49 insurance companies; the Post Office Savings Bank with a large network of branches around the country; 79 foreign exchange (forex) bureaus; three licensed credit reference bureaus, 14 money remittance providers and about 200 deposit-taking licensed savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) with a membership of over 3 million Kenyans. However, the banking sector is essentially dominated by four major commercial banks, namely Equity Bank, Kenya Commercial Bank, Barclays Bank of Kenya and Standard Chartered. In addition smaller banks have emerged and experienced tremendous growth in recent years.
More than 10 Kenyan banks—including Kenya Commercial Bank, Commercial Bank of Africa, Equity Bank and Bank of Africa—have subsidiaries operating in the East Africa Community and South Sudan. Increasing access to finance has been abridged with the use of innovation such as agent banking, which allows commercial banks and Deposit-Taking Microfinance (DTM) institutions to engage the services of third party outlets to deliver specified financial services on their behalf.