Coast counties poorest and most unequal

Four counties in the Coast region have been ranked as the most hit by poverty and income inequality in the country.

In a survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Society for International Development (SID), Lamu, Tana River, Kwale and Kilifi counties lead in the poverty index with the residents experiencing problems of low income, expenditure and immense inequality.

The report published in 2013 is based on the 2009 national census and it shows that the counties are the poorest in terms of general poverty, income disparity, access to education, sanitation, water, lighting and housing.

SID Programme Manager Mary Muyonga said the national average in terms of the ratio of the wealthiest to the poorest per county is 9 to 1.

"The five counties with the worst income inequality measured, as a ratio of the top to the bottom, are at the coast. The ratio of expenditure by the wealthiest to the poorest is 20 to 1 in Lamu, Tana River, Kwale and Kilifi counties," she said.

In terms of mean expenditure, the poorest counties are Mandera, Wajir, Turkana, Marsabit and Tana River but the report also notes that of the five most unequal counties, only Marsabit is in the north in terms of the mean expenditure in richest to poorest wards.

The most equal counties by income are Narok, West Pokot, Bomet, Nandi and Nairobi.