Kenya's population projected to reach 70 million in five years

The population of Kenya is set to hit 70 million in the next five years. This is after an improvement in the life expectancy of Kenyans.

According to the Deputy Director National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) Janet Wanjaria, there has been an improvement from the previous census.

"Currently women are living at an average of 67 years while men are living at an average of 61 years," reveals Wanjaria.

Wanjaria explains why men have a lower fertility rate than women, claiming that men are exposed to more dangerous variables. She identified one of these elements as the work that males perform.

"If you look at the jobs men do, they are more riskier than the jobs taken up by women. This might be the reason why they are exposed to death earlier than the women," she said.

With the population expected to increase, the NCPD deputy says there's a need to worry if the economic growth doesn't correspond with population growth saying, "There will be strain on the available resources."

She believes a high population will be hard to cater for if necessary measures are not in place. For instance, a hospital won't be able to offer quality services, or a school might record congestion cases and thus not be guaranteed to offer high-quality education to students because of the high student-teacher ratio.

Wanjaria says that population is a key factor in any government's business. She hints that a government can only budget if it knows its population.

In 2019, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics showed Kenya had 23,548,100 men and 24,041,700 females. Out of this, there were about 12,143,900 households with the average household size being four people.

The bureau projects that by mid-June 2024, the population will be above 52 million.

The Central Bank of Kenya shows current inflation rate as of June 2024 stood at 4.6 per cent a drop from 7.9 in January.