Poverty | Kenya Inequalities

Poverty

Poverty line

Poverty in this report is measured using estimated consumption expenditures. The poverty line is a threshold below which people are deemed poor. Household expenditure in Kenya averages KSh 3,002.8 per adult equivalent per month nationally. However, there are differences between urban and rural areas, counties and constituencies. Household expenditures per adult equivalent per month are KSh 1,962.10 in rural areas compared with KSh 4,690.6 in urban areas. In 2005/07, the poverty line was estimated at KSh 1,562 and KSh 2,913 per adult equivalent per month for rural and urban households respectively. Nationally, 45.2 percent of the population lives below the poverty line (2009 estimates), down from 46 percent in 2005/06.

At county level, there are significant inequalities in poverty. The proportion of individuals below the poverty line in Turkana (87.5 percent), Mandera (85.8 percent) and Wajir (84.2 percent) is four times that of Nairobi, which has the lowest poverty at 21.8 percent (see Table 3.3), and almost double that of Laikipia (47.9 percent), the median county. The national inequalities in poverty across counties are depicted in Figure 3.1, where the incidence of poverty is higher in the northern and coastal parts of the country and significantly lower in others especially in Nairobi and the central parts of the country.

These differences are more pronounced at constituency level (Table 3.3) whereby the proportion of the population below the poverty line in the poorest constituency (Turkana East) with 93.1 percent of its population living below the poverty line is nine times greater than the least poor constituency (Embakasi West) where only 10.3 percent of the population live below the poverty line. In total, 25 counties and 148 constituencies have more than 45.2% of their populations below the national poverty line.

Figure 3.1: Proportion of population below poverty line (headcount index) by county

Table 3.3: Counties ranking by poverty indicators

Name	Headcount index: percentage of individuals below poverty line	Standard error of headcount index	County	Poverty gap as percent of poverty line	Standard error of poverty gap	County	Severity of poverty as percent of poverty line	Standard error of severity of poverty
Kenya	45.2	0.081		12.2	0.040		4.9	0.025
Rural	50.5	0.098		14.1	0.052		5.8	0.033
Urban	33.5	0.137		8.1	0.056		3.0	0.034
Top 10 counties
Turkana	87.5	0.404	Tana River	46.1	0.993	Tana River	30.8	0.798
Mandera	85.8	0.581	Kwale	41.8	0.632	Kwale	28.8	0.505
Wajir	84.2	0.797	Mandera	32.4	0.456	Kilifi	20.8	0.396
Marsabit	75.8	0.934	Wajir	31.9	0.676	Wajir	15.3	0.467
Tana River	75.6	1.245	Kilifi	31.4	0.513	Mandera	15.2	0.296
Samburu	71.4	0.868	Turkana	29.0	0.421	Turkana	11.4	0.255
Kwale	70.7	0.754	Marsabit	22.9	0.593	Lamu	9.6	1.072
West Pokot	66.3	0.741	Isiolo	19.0	0.636	Marsabit	8.8	0.308
Isiolo	65.3	1.421	Garissa	18.7	0.621	Garissa	8.0	0.395
Makueni	60.6	0.457	Samburu	17.4	0.431	Taita-Taveta	7.2	0.347
Median county
Laikipia	47.9	0.823	Laikipia	10.5	0.279	Baringo	3.3	0.097
Bottom 10 counties
Mombasa	34.8	0.363	Siaya	7.6	0.122	Kiambu	2.1	0.076
Uasin-Gishu	33.8	0.354	Nandi	7.5	0.116	Nyeri	2.0	0.043
Nakuru	33.5	0.312	Narok	7.1	0.188	Trans-Nzoia	2.0	0.039
Murang’a	33.2	0.299	Nyeri	6.2	0.095	Nandi	2.0	0.040
Lamu	32.3	2.005	Nakuru	6.1	0.093	Kirinyaga	1.8	0.115
Meru	31.0	0.377	Meru	6.0	0.098	Narok	1.7	0.067
Nyeri	27.6	0.311	Uasin-Gishu	6.0	0.095	Meru	1.6	0.033
Kirinyaga	25.9	0.566	Kiambu	5.9	0.128	Nakuru	1.6	0.039
Kiambu	24.2	0.288	Kirinyaga	5.7	0.233	Uasin-Gishu	1.5	0.033
Nairobi	21.8	0.203	Nairobi	4.1	0.059	Nairobi	1.2	0.026

Table 3.4: Constituencies ranking by poverty indicators

Constituency	Headcount index: percentage of individuals below poverty line	Standard error of headcount index	Constituency	Poverty gap as percent of poverty line	Standard error of poverty gap	Constituency	Severity of poverty as percent of poverty line	Standard error of severity of poverty
Top 10 constituencies
Turkana East	93.1	0.814	Magarini	54.4	1.000	Kinango	38.4	0.907
Turkana North	91.7	0.685	Kinango	54.4	1.085	Magarini	37.9	0.837
Mandera South	91.6	0.661	Ganze	49.4	1.245	Lunga Lunga	33.8	0.964
Loima	91.4	0.758	Lunga Lunga	48.7	1.153	Ganze	33.6	1.018
Eldas	88.4	2.208	Garsen	46.8	1.678	Bura	31.1	1.401
Turkana South	87.7	1.103	Bura	46.3	1.770	Garsen	31.0	1.318
Mandera North	87.5	0.906	Galole	44.7	1.801	Galole	30.0	1.489
Wajir North	86.9	1.350	Mandera South	36.0	0.756	Matuga	19.8	0.933
Banissa	86.5	1.781	Wajir North	35.7	1.345	Malindi	18.9	0.986
Mandera West	85.9	2.003	Tarbaj	34.5	2.119	Kilifi North	18.8	0.759
Median constituency
Kisumu West	45.9	1.550	Kitui Central	10.2	0.309	Kitui Rural	3.2	0.126
Bottom 10 constituencies
Kisumu Central	18.6	0.617	Kapseret	3.5	0.120	Kapseret	0.8	0.036
Githunguri	18.3	0.433	Nakuru Town East	3.1	0.133	Starehe	0.8	0.057
Kajiado North	18.3	0.472	Nakuru Town West	3.1	0.136	Kamukunji	0.7	0.056
Langata	17.0	0.882	Starehe	2.8	0.182	Nakuru Town East	0.7	0.039
Starehe	16.4	0.859	Embakasi East	2.7	0.153	Nakuru Town West	0.7	0.043
Embakasi East	15.9	0.799	Kamukunji	2.6	0.159	Embakasi East	0.7	0.045
Kamukunji	15.1	0.654	Kajiado North	2.6	0.095	Kajiado North	0.6	0.027
Makadara	11.3	0.555	Makadara	1.8	0.114	Makadara	0.5	0.036
Embakasi Central	10.9	0.497	Embakasi Central	1.6	0.096	Embakasi Central	0.4	0.029
Embakasi West	10.3	0.505	Embakasi West	1.6	0.109	Embakasi West	0.4	0.035

Date And Time

NATIONAL REPORT

Partners