Basic Report on Well-Being in Kenya Based on the 2015/16 Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey (KIHBS)

Abstract

The Government of Kenya’s long-term economic blueprint, Vision 2030, aims at transforming Kenya into “a newly-industrialising, middle-income country providing a high quality of life to all its citizens in a clean and secure environment”. The social Pillar of Vision 2030, “Enhanced Equity and Wealth Creation Opportunities for the Poor”, underscores the Government’s commitment to eliminate poverty. This Vision is given more impetus by sustainable Development Goals (sDGs) and devolution. The 2015/16 KIhbs is the second Integrated household budget survey (hbs) to be undertaken in Kenya and the first under the devolved system of government. The Government of Kenya financed the survey through the World bank-supported Kenya statistics Programme-for-Results (KsPforR) project. The survey was undertaken to provide integrated household survey data on a wide range of indicators to assess the progress made in improving the living standards of the population at both national and county level. This survey was also conducted to inform and provide benchmark indicators to monitor the third Medium Term Plan (MTP III) and Kenya’s progress towards achievement of the sustainable Development Goals (sDGs). The 2015/16 KIhbs was a population-based survey designed to provide estimates for various indicators representative at the national level, each of the 47 counties, and place of residence (rural and urban areas). According to the derived poverty lines, households whose adult equivalent food consumption expenditure per person per month fell below Ksh 1,954 in rural areas and Ksh 2,551 in urban areas were deemed to be food poor. similarly, households whose overall consumption expenditure fell below Ksh 3,252 and Ksh 5,995 in rural and urban areas, respectively, per person per month were considered to be overall poor. Further, all those households that could not afford to meet their basic food requirements with all their total expenditure (food and non-food) were deemed to be hard-core/extreme poor