Kenya's economy grew 5.4 per cent last year

Kenya's economy grew by 5.4 per cent in 2019 compared to 6.3 per cent in 2018, an economic survey indicates.

Bad weather in the first half hit the economy for the period, specifically on agriculture

Tea, Sugar and Maize production fell by 5 per cent, 12.5 per cent and 10.3 per cent respectively. Milk production however soared.

Agriculture grew by 3.6 per cent last year compared to 6.0 per cent in 2018 as extreme weather conditions, first drought and then excess rain, hit agriculture, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani said on Tuesday at a press briefing.

According to statistics from the Kenya National Bureau, the economy created 843,000 new jobs majority in the informal sector, the formal sector created a paltry 61800 jobs.

During the year under review, formal employment in the manufacturing sector accounted for 12.1 per cent of the total number of persons engaged in the formal sector in the country.

Manufacturing Sector

Tthe manufacturing sector real value added increased by 3.2 per cent, which was a slower growth compared to 4.3 per cent recorded in 2018.

The volume of output for the sector rose by 2.0 per cent in 2019. The growth was attributed to increased production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, animal and vegetables fats and oils and pharmaceuticals sub-sectors.

However, there was decline in production of wood and products of wood, sugar, electrical equipment and other non-metallic mineral products among others. The amount of credit advanced to the sector by commercial banks and industrial financial institutions rose from Sh335.7 billion in 2018 to Sh366.9 billion in 2019.

Tourism Sector

Tourism earnings grew by 3.9 per cent from Sh157.4 billion in 2018 to Sh163.6 billion in 2019. During the period under review, hotel bed-night occupancy expanded by 6.3 per cent. The number of international visitor arrivals increased by 0.4 per cent, which was a slower growth compared to a 14.0 per cent rise in 2018.

The number of international and local conferences held rose by 6.9 per cent and 14.4 per cent to 218 and 4,743 respectively, in 2019.

Health and Vital Statistics

The survey says the overall expenditure on health services by the National Government is expected to rise by 50.9 per cent to Sh115.8 billion in 2019/20 while that of County Governments’ is expected to grow by 24.6 per cent to Sh 114.7 billion in 2019/20.

Diseases of the respiratory system continued to be the leading cause of outpatient disease incidence reported in public health facilities. Pneumonia remained the leading cause of infants and children under-five admissions to health facilities for the period 2017 to 2019.

In 2019, 96.3 per cent of the 1,178,260 registered births occurred in health facilities. Birth registration coverage in 2019 increased to 75.7 per cent. Low death registration coverage of 43.0 per cent was recorded in 2019.

Governance, Peace and Security

Total number of crimes reported to police increased by 5.8 per cent from 88,268 in 2018 to 93,411 in 2019. Crimes reported on other offences against persons were highest and accounted for 29.1 per cent of all crimes reported to the police followed by stealing which accounted for 14.9 per cent in the review period. The number of persons reported to the police for having committed crime rose by 7.9 per cent from 76,235 in 2018 to 82,288 in 2019.

The number of corruption reports referred for investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) increased by 20.2 per cent from 2,898 in 2017/18 to 3,482 in 2018/19.

In 2018/19, 32.9 per cent of the number of ethics and corruption reports forwarded to the Office of Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) were accepted compared to 61.7 per cent accepted in 2017/18. The value of public assets recovered by EACC was Sh4.5 billion while value of loss averted was Sh14.5 billion in 2019.

Education and Training

Total expenditure for the Ministry of Education is expected to increase to Sh 496.8 billion in 2019/20 from 455.1 billion in 2018/19. Recurrent expenditure is expected to go up by 9.4 per cent to Sh468.4 billion in 2019/20, while development expenditure is expected to increase by 5.5 per cent to Sh 28.3 billion in 2019/20.

During the review period, the total number of schools reduced by 2.5 per cent to 89,337. The number of primary and secondary schools declined by 14.7 per cent and 8.2 per cent to 32,344 and 10,463, respectively, in 2019.

The number of pre-primary schools increased by 10.0 per cent to 46,530 in the same period. The total number of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions increased by 10.3 per cent to 2,191 in 2019 while that of universities remained constant at 63 during the review period.

The total number of pupils enrolled in pre-primary 1 and 2 stood at 2.7 million in 2019. Enrolment in primary schools declined by 4.5 per cent to 10.1 million in 2019, while that of secondary schools grew by 10.8 per cent to 3.3 million in 2019.

The enrolment of teacher trainees decreased by 25.1 per cent to 31,737, while that of TVET institutions went up by 19.7 per cent to 430,598 in 2019.

University enrolment is expected to decline by 1.9 per cent to 509,473 in 2019/20. The total number of candidates who sat for KCPE in 2019 recorded an increase of 2.7 per cent to 1,088,989 in 2019, while those who sat for KCSE went up by 6.1 per cent to 693,770 in 2019. The number of candidates who scored C+ (plus) and above grew by 38.4 per cent to 125,835 in 2019.