Meru County has joined the list of the top five richest counties in Kenya, measured by how much each County contributes to Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The County, governed by Kiraitu Murungi is known for Miraa farming and production.
It is in the league of the big five which include; Nairobi, Kiambu, Mombasa and Nakuru respectively.
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Nairobi maintained its status as the richest County contributing 27.5 percent of total GDP as of 2020 from 21.7 in 2017.
Nairobi’s Gross County Product (GCP) contribution to the Gross Value Added (GVA) has doubled from Ksh.1.3 trillion to Ksh.2.6 trillion.
Kiambu grew from Ksh.288.9 billion to Ksh.553.3 billion, Nakuru from Ksh.221 billion to Ksh.480 billion and Mombasa from Ksh.268 billion to Ksh.467 billion.
The top five, combined, contribute 46.9 percent of total wealth created by the 47 counties, with the top 10 contributing about 60 percent of the national wealth.
“There are significant differences in the size of the economy across counties, but the biggest disparity is between Nairobi and the rest of the counties. During this period, the results show that Nairobi contributed 27.5 percent of the total economy’s GVA, followed by Kiambu (5.9 percent), Mombasa (5.2 percent), and Nakuru (4.9 percent). All the other counties contributed less than 4 percent apiece to total GVA,” reads the report.
The bottom 10 contributed a paltry 4.6 percent of GVA. KNBS says 33 out of 47 counties accounted for less than 2 percent of contribution each to the economy.These are; Isiolo, Samburu, Tana River, Lamu, Wajir, Mandera, Marsabit, Garissa, Tharaka Nithi, Taita Taveta, West Pokot and Baringo.
Close to 15.7 million Kenyans were poor as at the end of 2016, according to the report that was also supported by Unicef.
