Top 10 Wealthiest, Poorest Counties in Kenya

A new report dubbed Gross County Product (GCP) 2019 has ranked Nairobi County as highest contributor to Kenya’s national wealth.

The study conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that Nairobi has the highest GCP of 21.7 percent among the 47 Kenyan counties.

Nakuru is ranked second with GCP of 6.1 percent followed by Kiambu (5.5 percent), Mombasa (4.7 percent) and Machakos (3.2 percent.)

Meru County (2.9 percent), Kisumu (2.9 percent), Nyandarua (2.6 percent) Kakamega (2.4 percent) and Uasin Gishu (2.3 percent) close the list of top 10 richest counties in Kenya.

The study was funded by the World Bank and tracked the monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in each of the 47 counties.

The report says that agriculture remains a key driver of growth in most counties with the exception of Nairobi and Mombasa. 

“The latest data was drawn from regular data collected by the agency through recurrent and intermittent surveys and censuses and administrative records,” says KNBS.

On the flip side, Isiolo (0.2 percent) and Samburu (0.3 percent) contribute the least to the national wealth.

Other poor counties include Lamu (0.4 percent), Marsabit (0.5 percent), Tana River (0.5 percent), Mandera (0.5 percent), Wajir (0.5 percent), Garissa (0.6 percent), West Pokot (0.7 percent) and Taita Taveta (0.5 percent).