Economic Survey 2026 exposes Kenya’s persistent gender gaps

What you need to know:

• Girls trail boys in education enrolment while men dominate technical training, universities and crime statistics.
• Economic Survey 2026 highlights gender disparities in education, reproductive health, employment and the justice system. 

The annual economic survey report consistently provides information on the status of gender equality, particularly in the social sector.

The 2026 version shows clear advances, but also disparities, in the education sector. For example, girls accounted for 49.6 per cent enrolment in pre-primary schools in 2025 and 49.1 per cent and 48.7 per cent in primary and junior schools, respectively. But they experienced a general decline from 49.3 per cent in Grade 1 to 48.7 per cent in Grade 9. Overall, there were slightly more boys than girls enrolled in all cohorts.

There was a clear gender disparity regarding trained teachers at pre-primary school level, where females accounted for 87.4 per cent, making this a clearly feminised role. This raises a fundamental question: What keeps men away from the occupation?

From 2022 to 2025, boys outnumbered girls among candidates for the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment. Specifically, for 2025, there were more boys (578,553) than girls (552,141) registered as well as those assessed, the latter standing at 569,259 boys and 544,141 girls.

But the number of registered female candidates in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Educationrecorded a higher increase of 3.9 per cent compared to 2.4 per cent for males. The proportion of female candidates with C+ and above increased by 3.4 per cent to 130,280, while that of male ones increased by 5.8 per cent to 140,198 in 2025.

Coming to technical and vocational education, there was near gender parity in enrolment, but with slightly more males (299,250) than females (277,077). The higher disparity comes with regard to trainers employed by the public service, where males (13,962) are almost double the females (7,871).

Male students joining university (381,165) constituted 53.9 per cent compared to the female (325,985) at 46.1 per cent of the total in all courses. But specifically in private universities, females outnumbered males, accounting for 61.9 per cent of the enrolment in the 2025/26 academic year. It would be interesting to know factors responsible for this skew.

As in previous years, females were the majority in adult education, accounting for 61.2 per cent of total enrolment in 2025. This shows that there are either more illiterate women than men or that they have a stronger appetite to improve their education.

With regard to teacher training, there was a higher increase in enrollment for males (65.5 per cent) than females (52.7 per cent). The increase in both categories is attributed to lowering of the minimum entry requirements. But the statistics show that the change was more beneficial to males than females. Could this mean that there were more qualified male applicants or that men outnumber women among those seeking opportunities? 

Health statistics present a gloomier picture. Facility-based deliveries declined to 1,203.7 thousand in 2025 from 1,208.6 thousand in 2024, while normal and breech deliveries declined by 2.8 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively in 2025.

As in previous years, Caesarean section deliveries kept increasing, this time by 9.9 per cent, while assisted vaginal deliveries rose by 20.3 per cent, indicating a decline in natural deliveries.

On an encouraging note, the number of adolescents presenting with pregnancy at their first antenatal care visit declined by 4.2 per cent to 235,900 in 2025. However, adolescent pregnancy cases overall increased by 2.2 per cent to 235,900, with cases among ages 10–14 rising by 14.6 per cent. This is an indicator of early sexual debut among female children.

The key question is whether it is their peers or older men that are responsible. If the latter, then we should be seeing more men being jailed for defilement, unless the police are not doing their work.

Of concern also is the decline in uptake of modern contraceptive methods. For instance, injections decreased by 10.9 per cent in new clients and 8.6 per cent for revisits while “uptake of combined oral contraceptive pills declined by 29.9 per cent for new clients and 22.7 per cent for revisits”.

That the largest decline was on oral contraceptives means that this method is becoming less appealing. The decline across all methods shows that contraception is losing its meaning, implying that its benefits are lost, hence there will probably be a spike in population in the coming years. Could the decline be an indicator of barriers to accessing contraceptives?

Law violations

Crime continues to be male dominated. Of persons reported to have committed infractions, 13,657 were men against only 3,574 women. Overall, the daily average population of male prisoners increased by 6.3 per cent to 57,846 while that of females decreased by 37 per cent to 2,894.

A major worry is the trend with regard to juveniles. The report shows that “the number of convicted child prisoners more than doubled, rising from 535 in 2024 to 1,123 in 2025 with the cases of female inmates increasing tenfold and that of their male counterparts rising by 88.1 per cent.”

While the report does not detail factors responsible for the gender disparities, it is a good barometer that should guide researchers on issues for investigation.

The writer is a lecturer in Gender and Development Studies at South Eastern Kenya University ([email protected]).