Kenya’s Economic Sectors

The private sector in Kenya is vibrant and in good health. Kenya is a promising place to do business, with growing markets and good opportunities. Importantly, there is a widespread intellectual appreciation amongst Kenyans, including Government officials, that the private sector is important and will be the main driver of growth and employment, rather than…

Kenya has set the stage for major improvements in its health care sector with the aim of achieving the Governments ‘s Big Four Agenda; Universal Health Care (UHC) by the year 2022. Healthcare in Kenya is provided through a network of over 4700 health facilities. The public sector is dominating Kenya’s healthcare sector, but the…

The construction industry grew by 9.2% in 2016 from an expansion of 13.9% registered in 2015. This was attributed to the steady growth in property development, a vibrant real estate sector and the ongoing mega infrastructure projects. Increased activity in the construction of roads and development of housing translated to an increase in employment sector…

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) – Revised Edition 2012 report, Kenya aims to become a prime supplier of basic goods to the eastern and central African markets before moving into the manufacture of niche products for other markets. The strategy proposes to invest in training, research and development and…

Mining in Kenya is relatively modest in scale. Kenya is a potential source of high-value mineral commodities such as titanium and oil that remain unexploited due to inadequate knowledge on their status, economic viability and appropriate mining technologies. In March 2012, oil was discovered in Turkana by the British oil company Tullow. The Ministry of…

Kenya is known as Silicon Savannah: its ICT sector is the country’s fastest growing, accounting for more than 10 per cent of GDP and expected to create 180,000 jobs by the end of 2017. Nairobi is home to a series of tech co-working and incubation spaces including iHub, m:lab East Africa, Nailab, and GrowthHub. They…

Kenya’s financial sector comprises of banking, insurance, capital markets, pension schemes and other banking institutions such as savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs), microfinance institutions (MFIs), building societies and development finance institutions (DFIs), amongst others. These are all regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. Kenya’s financial sector is the largest in the East and…

The transport sector in Kenya is under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. A key task of this Ministry is to position Kenya as the logistics hub of the region by creating a modern and efficient transport system for goods and services within the counties and also with other countries in the…

Kenya’s services sector, which contributes about 61 percent of GDP, is dominated by tourism. The tourism sector, which is managed by the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, has exhibited steady growth in most years since Independence and by the late 1980s had become the country’s principal source of foreign exchange. According to…

Energy Sector Energy matters in Kenya are handled by the Ministry for Energy. 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…

Kenya’s economy was built on agriculture. Today, it is constantly evolving and modernising, and still contributes most to national GDP and is the biggest employer. Products range from small-scale subsistence maize harvests for farmers and their families, to multimillion-dollar international flower and vegetable exports. Kenya is the world’s largest grower and exporter of pyrethrum, and…