KENYA: Nairobi province has the highest number of wealthy households with about 9 out of every 10 people in the capital city falling above the poverty line, according a new survey on demographics and health across the 47 counties.
The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2014, released Thursday, surveyed 40,300 households and found that Kenya’s capital city and commercial hub had the least number of poor households as of 2014.
North Eastern had highest number of poor households in the country, with seven in 10 people in the region struggling to afford most essential needs.
A whopping 72.9 per cent of the households in former province of North Eastern occupied the lowest wealth quintile, a category that suggests the individuals lack access to safe drinking water, basic sanitation facilities and adequate housing.
However, Western Province has the least concentration of the wealthy, with 6.2 per cent of households in the top wealth quintile, according to the survey.
North Eastern was also ranked as having the most unequal distribution of wealth, with the gap between the percentage of households in the highest wealth quintile and those in the lowest one being 63.8 per cent.
The five wealth quintiles identified in the survey in descending order are: highest, fourth, middle, second and lowest.
To determine the position of a household in a quintile, the researchers came up with a formula that took into consideration the difference in indicators of wealth in urban and rural areas.
The authors asked the respondents about their household environment, including the source of drinking water, type of sanitation facility, building characteristics, such as type of material used for roofing, flooring and walls, as well as number of rooms used for sleeping.
As expected, households in the urban areas were wealthier than those in the rural areas with three-quarters of residents in towns occupying the two highest wealth quantiles, while more than three-quarters of rural residents are in the lowest three quintiles.
The report also showed that 64 per cent of Kenyans did not have access to electricity by 2014.
A majority of Kenyans own mobile phones, with the number of Kenyans owning the gadget having increased from 62 per cent when the survey was last done to 86 per cent in 2014.
The figure was even higher at the household level, with nine out of 10 of urban households owning mobile phones.
Also, urban households were more likely to possess a radio at 74 per cent with their rural counterparts at 63 per cent.
Further, 56 per cent of urban households own a TV compared to 19 per cent of rural ones, while only 2 per cent of rural households own a refrigerator against 13 per cent of urban households.
