Kenyans living in rural areas are getting richer much faster than millions of their counterparts who have migrated to cities, in a trend that is redefining wealth creation in the country.
A Business Daily analysis of data from the inequalities in well-being in Kenya report has revealed that rural dwellers are coming out of poverty at a faster rate compared to those residing in urban areas. Data from the report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that the poverty rate declined by 13.6 percentage points to 3.9 percentage points between 2009 and 2019.
“Monetary poverty incidence decreased from 45.7 per cent in 2009 to 33.3 per cent in 2019, and the poverty gap nearly halved from 19.4 to 10.7. Both reductions were largely attributed to the significant improvements in rural areas,” the report notes.
The shift also points to the change in fortunes following devolution which is distributing wealth that was initially concentrated in Nairobi and other big towns to rural towns in the counties.
The report also found that ten counties had more than half of their population classified as monetarily poor, exhibiting huge regional disparities in incomes across the country.
The report shows that more than a third of Kenyans or 15.8 million Kenyans were monetarily poor as of 2019 compared to 17.6 million in 2009. This means they lacked the financial means to afford food and basic amenities.
Turkana had the highest percentage of the poor at 84.8 percent followed by Mandera at 76.7 percent. Based on the report,” an individual is considered monetarily poor if residing in a household with monthly adult equivalent consumption below the overall poverty line.”
In 2019, the overall poverty lines in monthly adult equivalent terms were Sh3,252 in rural areas and Sh5995 in urban areas. However, compared to 2009, the overall poverty lines were Sh1562 and Sh2913 in rural and urban areas respectively.
Nairobi county had the second lowest proportion of monetarily poor individuals at 10.4 percent. Counties in Central Kenya recorded low monetary poverty rates with Nyeri leading nationally at 9.8 percent, followed by Kirinyaga and Kiambu at 18.8 and 19.9 percent respectively. This underscores the massive inequality and uneven distribution of financial resources across Kenya.
Counties located in the arid and semi-arid regions such as Turkana, Mandera and Samburu had the highest incidence of monetary poverty at 84.8,76.7 and 72.2 percent respectively.
The proportion of monetarily poor individuals in the country dropped by 27.1 percentage points in 2019 from 45.7 percent in 2019 indicating improvements in well-being and better standards of living.
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