Million more Kenyans struggle to buy nutritious food as prices surge
A family gathers at the table for a meal.
What you need to know:
- World report shows Kenya’s hunger crisis worsening, with women and rural communities facing the greatest food insecurity risks.
- From 2017 to 2024, the cost of a healthy meal in Kenya rose by 67 per cent.
Over 43 million Kenyans were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2024, placing the country at greater risk of falling further behind in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2, which aims to end hunger by 2030.
According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report, the number of people unable to afford a healthy meal rose by 9.4 million between 2017 and 2024—from 34.1 million (69.3 per cent of the population) to 43.5 million (77 per cent).
The report attributes this worsening crisis to a series of compounded shocks, including prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa that devastated harvests and livestock; the war in Ukraine, which disrupted global grain and fertiliser supplies; and domestic currency depreciation, which pushed up the cost of imported goods.
The cost of a healthy meal in Kenya increased sharply between 2017 and 2024. Last year, an individual needed to spend about Sh189 per day to afford a nutritious meal, compared with Sh113 in 2017. Prices for essential starchy staples and edible oils—core components of low-income diets—recorded some of the steepest increases, prompting households to reduce dietary diversity and rely more heavily on cheaper, less nutritious foods.
“Low-income countries like Kenya have borne the brunt of recent food price increases. Even modest price rises can make healthy food entirely out of reach for millions,” the report stated.
It warned that the high and persistent costs of nutrient-rich foods such as fruit, vegetables, and animal products are lowering the quality of people’s diets.
Kenya’s undernourishment rate stood at 26.3 per cent in 2022—significantly higher than the African average of 19.7 per cent. In the same year, 69.1 per cent of Kenyans experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, meaning they did not have reliable access to sufficient and nutritious food throughout the year.
Although Kenya’s child nutrition indicators are better than the African average — with stunting at 18.1 per cent, wasting at 4.2 per cent, and overweight at 4.1 per cent — these gains remain fragile. The report notes that a 10 per cent increase in food prices is associated with up to a 4.3 per cent rise in child wasting, underscoring the vulnerability of young children to economic shocks.
Furthermore, women are more likely than men to experience food insecurity due to lower earnings, caregiving responsibilities, and limited access to productive resources. “Vulnerable groups, particularly women and rural populations, are disproportionately affected due to weaker social protection mechanisms and fewer coping strategies,” the report noted.
The authors call for urgent action, including scaling up climate-smart agriculture to boost productivity and resilience, and expanding irrigation systems to reduce reliance on unpredictable rainfall. They also recommend investing in food storage, transportation, and market infrastructure; strengthening social protection programmes by adjusting benefits in line with inflation; and establishing strategic food reserves to guard against supply shocks.
