Four in ten Kenyan women in rural areas report owning a house, compared to just two in ten urban women, according to a new report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) using data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS).
- •The data also reveals that only 32.8% of women own houses compared with 44.6% of men, a lopsided ledger of ownership that underscores the stubborn tilt of economic power.
- •Just 28.5% of Kenyan women hold bank accounts, compared with 40% of men; a gulf that widens in the countryside, where only 19.2% of women are banked against 27.7% of men.
- •In cities, the numbers improve but remain uneven, with 41.9% of women holding accounts compared with 56.5% of men, leaving many women still shut out of the financial mainstream.
About 37% of men in rural areas own agricultural land compared to 22% of their urban counterparts. Rural women own 32% of agricultural land, outpacing urban women at 14.1%.
Employment is another area where rural women are struggling. Nationally, KNBS data shows that just 52.3% of women aged 15–49 are in paid employment, compared to 78.1% of men. The figures are worse for younger women (15–29 years) and those in the lowest wealth bracket, who face disproportionately higher unemployment.
Between 2014 and 2022, the proportion of women in marriages who completed secondary school nearly doubled, from 20.6% to 38.9%. Yet education gains have not fully translated into jobs as paid employment among women in marriages slipped from 35.8% to 34.0%, even as ‘not-in-union’ women saw an increase from 64.9% to 69.9%.
The survey also points to gains in women’s household autonomy. Nearly all married women (95.6%) reported having a say in decisions over their own earnings, slightly higher than men at 92.5%. Yet when it comes to big-budget matters, men are more likely to decide on the purchases (86.9% versus 78.2% of women). This shows that while women’s voices in the household are stronger than before, they remain less dominant in the most consequential financial choices.
While mobile phone ownership is nearly universal, a small gap persists. About 81% of men own phones compared with 77.5% of women. The divide deepens with internet use, as 55.1% of men are online versus just 44.2% of women. The disparities are greater on the geographical front as about two-thirds of urban women (67.7%) use the internet compared with barely more than a quarter of rural women (27.9%).
