Census shows 7 million Kenyans never went to school

Graduands follow proceedings during Kabarak University graduation ceremony on December 20, 2019. PHOTO | FRANCIS MUREITHI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • About 6.9 million Kenyans who were in school or institutions of higher learning did not complete their studies.

  • The number of female working population accounted for 50.2 per cent.

  • The results further revealed that economically active population was 22.3 million.

At least 17.8 million Kenyans were either pursuing various courses in institutions of higher learning or were in school according to the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census report.

However, the completion rate was not commensurate to the number of learners who registered. Only 11.6 million completed their studies.

SHOCKING REVELATION

This means about 6.9 million Kenyans, who were in school or institutions of higher learning, did not complete their studies

But the shocking revelation is that 7.1million Kenyans have never been to school.

The data shows that 10 million people were in primary schools while 3.4 million were in secondary schools. About 3.3 million were in pre-primary schools.

Those attending middle level college or technical training education were about 500,000 while the number of those pursuing university education stood at 471,000.

The number of people with university education was about 1.3 million.

According to the data, a number of sub-locations had no people on the census night for various reasons including migration by residents.

MIGRATED

Other reasons included forest area, gazetted national parks and the area being covered by the lakes.

The affected sub locations were Tsavo East National Park in Makueni County, Aberdare Forest in Kiambu, Parkati in Turkana County where population migrated in search of water.

Sub locations that had no people due to forest cover included Nandi South Forest, North Tinderet and South Forest in Nandi County.

Mau Forest, and Tinderet Forest in Nakuru, Kericho and Bomet counties respectively as well as Kakamega East Forest were not enumerated.

The results further revealed that economically active population was 22.3 million, comprising the working population of 19.7 million.

JOB SEEKERS

The number of female working population accounted for 50.2 per cent.

More men (50.4 per cent) were working in urban areas compared to women (40.6 per cent).

The number of job seekers stood at 2.6 million while 18.9 million people were outside the labour force at the time of the census.

The report further revealed that there were about 10.1 million youth aged between 18-34 years and 4.1 million youth aged 15-24 years were in the labour force.

More Kenyans were becoming home owners as the results showed that 61.3 per cent were home owners. Those occupying rented dwelling units were 38.7 per cent.

HOME OWNERS

“About 93.9 per cent of home owners constructed their houses, 3.3 were inherited,” said the report.

The number of Kenyans purchasing houses through mortgage was low.  Only 2.8 per cent said they purchased their homes.

The data shows that 80.3 per cent of the household occupied dwellings had iron sheet as the main roofing material followed by concrete at 8.2 per cent.

About 34.2 per cent of Kenyans relied on piped water as a source of drinking water.

More than half or 51.2 per cent of the Kenyans use covered pit latrines as sanitation facility.