According to a recently released assessment, Turkana County is both the poorest and most unequally devolved entity in the country.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and partners, including the University of Nairobi, conducted a collaborative study titled Inequality Trends and Diagnostics in Kenya 2020.
The findings are curved out in the current research by examining prior polls that span a 20-year period from 1994 to 2016.
Turkana has an absolute poverty rate of 79.4%, which is defined as a home, family, or individual’s inability to satisfy basic necessities such as food, housing, safe drinking water, education, and healthcare.
While there is no clear link between absolute poverty and inequality, Turkana has the highest gini index score of 0.559, making it the most unequal area.
A higher gini index corresponds to a higher rate of inequality, whereas a lower gini index corresponds to low levels of inequality.
With absolute poverty rates of 77.6, 75.8, 69.3, and 65.5 percent, Mandera, Samburu, Busia, and Garissa are among the top five poorest counties in Kenya.
Samburu, along with Kajiado, Kisumu, Kilifi, and Tana River counties, is on the most unequal shortlist.
The least poor are Nairobi, Nyeri, Meru, Kirinyaga, Kiambu, and Machokos, with absolute poverty rates of 16.8, 19.3, 19.4, 20 and 23.3 percent, respectively.
All five have inequality levels that are lower than the national gini ratio of 0.404.
Overall, after starting off with a score of 0.46, the level of inequality has decreased during the last 20 years.
Over the same time span, other indices such as Theil, Atkinson, and the Palma ratio also show a decrease in inequality levels.
Surprisingly, inequality is higher among the non-poor than among the poor. It is also greater in households when the head of the family has a higher degree of education.
Furthermore, inequality in metropolitan regions is larger than at the grassroots level.
Inequality has decreased in 35 of the 47 counties studied, while it has increased in 12 others. Nairobi County has shocked many by reducing inequality the greatest in the last two decades.
With a Gini coefficient of 0.272, Wajir is the least unequal county, ahead of Mombasa, Bomet, Homa Bay, and Vihiga.
