Kenya

Economy & income

Currency

• Kenyan shilling (KES, KSh/Ksh)
• ~129 per USD (14 Jul 2026, CBK/market) — relatively stable through 2025–26 after the 2024 rally from ~160/USD
• the CBK actively manages the rate

GDP per capita

• ~$2,200 nominal (2024, World Bank) rising to ~$2,560 (2025 est., IMF WEO; total GDP ~$130bn — East Africa's largest economy)
• ~$6,619 PPP (2024, World Bank, current int'l $)

Average salary

• ~$375 net/mo (Numbeo Nairobi, Jul 2026 — Nairobi-skewed, moderate sample)
• formal-sector avg earnings KSh 933,100/yr (2024, KNBS Economic Survey) ≈ KSh 77,758/mo ≈ ~$600 gross — but formal payroll is a minority of all workers

Median salary

• n/a — no clean official national median wage published
• ~80%+ of employment is informal ('jua kali', agriculture, gig) and largely uncaptured, so the formal-sector mean overstates typical earnings
• indicative typical pay is far below the mean

Minimum wage

• General/urban labourer KSh 16,113.75/mo ≈ ~$125 (gazetted, unchanged 2024→2025, Ministry of Labour Regulation of Wages Order)
• lower agricultural minimum ~KSh 8,109/mo
• enforcement is weak in the informal sector

Cost of living

• Low — Numbeo Nairobi Cost-of-Living Index ~32 (Jul 2026, well below Western cities)
• 1-bed city-centre rent ~KSh 94,000 (~$730)/mo, suburbs ~KSh 63,000. Numbeo depth is decent for Nairobi but thin elsewhere (flag)

Digital landscape

Population

57.8 million (Oct 2025, DataReportal Digital 2026 Kenya; 30.7% urban / 69.3% rural)

Internet users

40.5% (~23.4M users, Oct 2025; +9.9% YoY — the offline majority is ~59.5%)

Social media users

31.8% (~18.4M identities, Oct 2025; 38.4% female / 61.6% male; +34.6% YoY)

Mobile connections

• 77.5M cellular connections = 134% of pop (Oct 2025)
• 80.4% on broadband (3G/4G/5G)

Devices

• StatCounter Jun 2026 shows desktop ~59.5% / mobile ~39.9% / tablet ~0.6% — but this is a sharp outlier vs Kenya's long-run ~75–80% mobile share and reflects a measurement/bot-traffic anomaly
• real personal access is overwhelmingly mobile-first (134% SIM penetration, ~92% Android)

Ad spend

• Total measured ad market ~KSh 48bn (~$370M) Jan–Sep 2025, down ~22% YoY (Reelanalytics) as the gambling-ad crackdown hit and banking overtook betting as top spender
• digital ad spend fell sharply (Q4 2025 ~KSh 6.08bn, −48% YoY, Business Daily/MSAK)
• Statista pegs the digital-ad market around ~$300M

Top social platforms

TikTok ~18.4M 18+ ad reach — the dominant youth platform; note ad-tool reach is inflated

Facebook ~17.0M ad reach — still huge for mass reach & Marketplace

YouTube ~12.1M ad reach — video & music

LinkedIn ~6.3M members — professional/B2B

Snapchat ~4.99M reach — younger urban

Instagram ~3.95M reach — aspirational/urban, 6.8% of pop

X/Twitter ~2.09M reach — news, politics, 'KOT' Kenyans-on-Twitter

Messengers

• WhatsApp (dominant — primary chat, groups, business/social-commerce catalogues)
• Facebook Messenger (~2.80M reach)
• Telegram (growing — betting, crypto, deals, exam/news channels)
• Snapchat (younger urban); M-Pesa is the ubiquitous money-transfer layer alongside chat

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Mobile money (the dominant rail — ~91% adult penetration; ~$157bn+ transacted 2024). Safaricom's M-Pesa leads with ~89–91% of the mobile-money market, near-universal for P2P, bills, merchant 'Lipa na M-Pesa' & online checkout
• Cash / cash-on-delivery (still common for everyday retail & marketplace orders)
• Airtel Money (~9–11% and rising on aggressive pricing) & Telkom T-Kash (minor)
• Bank cards — Visa/Mastercard (minority; urban, low card penetration) & gateways (Pesapal, Flutterwave, PayPal for cross-border)

E-wallets

• M-Pesa (Safaricom — dominant)
• Airtel Money
• T-Kash (Telkom)
• PayPal / Pesapal / Flutterwave (gateways for online merchants)

Cash on delivery

• COD is still offered (Jumia allows pay-on-delivery & buyer protection) but M-Pesa prepay is fast becoming the default — mobile money handles ~70%+ of online transactions
• STK-push ('Lipa na M-Pesa') checkout is the norm

E-commerce

• Low-to-moderate but growing
• Jumia leads (est. ~$800M+ GMV), then Kilimall & Carrefour
• trust, delivery outside Nairobi/Mombasa & counterfeit worries remain barriers
• strongly mobile-first

Notes

• M-Pesa-first market — any offer/checkout MUST support M-Pesa (STK-push)
• Card penetration is low, so design around mobile money + COD, not cards
• Payouts to Kenyan affiliates/creators typically ride M-Pesa or bank transfer

Audience & culture

Languages

• Swahili (Kiswahili — national language & everyday lingua franca)
• English (official — business, government, media & most formal ads)
• Sheng (urban Swahili–English youth slang — huge for authentic youth creatives)
• Kikuyu, Luhya, Luo, Kalenjin & Kamba (largest ethnic-community languages)
• ~60+ languages spoken nationwide

Religion

Christian ~85% (Protestant ~33%, Evangelical ~20%, Catholic ~20%, plus other churches), Muslim ~11% (concentrated on the Coast & North-East), Traditional/Hindu/other/none ~4% (2019 Census, KNBS)

Median age

20.0 years (DataReportal, Oct 2025) — one of the world's youngest populations

Key seasons

• Christmas–New Year (Dec–Jan) — peak spending, upcountry travel & festivals
• Back-to-school terms (Jan, May, Sep) — big family-spend windows
• Easter
• Ramadan & Eid (Coast & North-East Muslim communities)
• Madaraka Day (1 Jun), Mashujaa (20 Oct) & Jamhuri Day (12 Dec)
• EPL / UEFA & AFCON football windows (betting spikes); Black Friday (growing)

Cultural notes

• Young, mobile-first, football-obsessed (English Premier League especially) and famously entrepreneurial ('hustler' economy)
• M-Pesa is woven into daily life
• sports-betting culture is very strong among young men
• Price-sensitive
• heavy WhatsApp/TikTok/Facebook sharing
• 'KOT' (Kenyans on Twitter/X) drives outsized discourse
• Religiously & socially conservative — modest, family- & faith-respectful creatives win

Where to find creators

• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• X/Twitter
• StarNgage / Modash / Favikon rankings

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Azziad Nasenya ~3.3M TikTok

TikTokDance/comedy, actress & radio host — Kenya's 'TikTok Queen'; top choice for youth brand deals

E

Eric Omondi ~5.2M Instagram

Instagram/YouTubeComedian & entertainer — huge mass reach, high-visibility brand campaigns & stunts

N

Njugush (Timothy Kimani) ~3M Instagram

Instagram/YouTubeFamily-friendly comedy skits ('Wetu') with wife Celestine — very brand-safe, strong FMCG/telco appeal

E

Elsa Majimbo ~2M Instagram

Instagram/TikTokDeadpan comedy — global luxury brand deals (Valentino, Fenty, Beats, Bumble); international crossover reach

Abel Mutua (Mkurugenzi) ~1.0M YouTube

YouTubeStorytelling/vlogs, actor & scriptwriter — loyal audience, strong for narrative brand integrations

C

Crazy Kennar (Kennedy Odhiambo) ~660K YouTube (large TikTok)

YouTube/TikTokRelatable comedy skits with a team — youth mass appeal, frequent branded content

D

Diana Marua ~2.9M Instagram

YouTube/InstagramLifestyle & family vlogs (with singer Bahati) — beauty/family/e-com relevance, female-skewed audience

M

Moya David ~3M+ TikTok

TikTokSurprise dance performances & feel-good/humanitarian content — brand campaigns & challenges

Celebrities

Lupita Nyong'o ~11.4M Instagram

Oscar-winning actress (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther) — Kenya's most globally famous star

Eliud Kipchoge ~3M Instagram

Marathon legend — Olympic champion & former world-record holder, first sub-2-hour marathon

Faith Kipyegon ~310K Instagram

Middle-distance runner — multiple Olympic & World 1500m champion, world-record holder

T

Tanasha Donna ~3.7M Instagram

Singer, model & former TV/radio host — pan-African music profile

J

Jalang'o (Phelix Odiwour) ~2.9M Instagram

Comedian, media personality & Member of Parliament (Lang'ata)

O

Otile Brown ~1.4M YouTube / ~2M Instagram

Afro-pop/R&B musician — first Kenyan artist to pass 1M YouTube subs

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Sports betting / iGaming (football-driven — the #1 vertical, though 2025 ad rules now bar influencer endorsements)
• Fintech — mobile-loan/nano-credit apps, M-Pesa services & remittances
• E-commerce COD (phones/gadgets, fashion, beauty, home)
• Nutra / health COD (weight, potency, beauty — PPB-restricted, grey)
• Airtime/data, VAS, app installs & sweepstakes
• Dating (mainstream/heterosexual only)
• Crypto/trading (rising, now regulated under the VASP Act)

Active networks

• Sports-betting operator programs — Betika, Odibets, SportPesa, 1xBet Partners, Betwinner, 22Bet, Melbet, Paripesa, Betway KE (the biggest local affiliate money)
• Push/pop & CPA networks — Adsterra, RichAds, PropellerAds, Evadav
• Nutra/CPA networks — Dr.Cash, INB.bio, 3SNET, Alfaleads
• Jumia Kenya affiliate/seller program (e-commerce)
• Global CPA networks (Mobidea, Zeydoo, ClickDealer) — few significant Kenya-only networks

Payouts

• Tier-3 low payouts — betting FTD CPA ~$5–50 (RevShare 15–40%+ common given LTV)
• finance/loan CPL low ($0.5–3)
• nutra/e-com COD carry thin margins — watch COD-rejection & delivery drop-off
• CPI/CPL traffic is cheap

Competition

• High in betting (crowded with big operator budgets, now reshaped by the ad crackdown)
• cheaper CPMs/traffic than Tier-1, but rising regulatory friction on gambling & lending

Seasonality

• EPL/UEFA & AFCON football weekends and month-end paydays spike betting
• Christmas–New Year & back-to-school terms are the big consumer-spend windows
• World Cup 2026 will lift betting

Traffic sources

• Popunders (a top-performing source into Kenya — RichAds/Adsterra)
• Push ads (opt-in base, good localized CTR)
• Facebook / Meta ads
• TikTok (ads & organic — youth)
• Google / YouTube & SEO
• Telegram & WhatsApp channels
• Influencer / KOL shoutouts (football, comedy, music) — but NOT for gambling anymore

Good to know

Capital

Nairobi

Major cities

• Nairobi
• Mombasa
• Kisumu
• Nakuru
• Eldoret
• Ruiru
• Thika
• Nyeri

Time zones

Single zone — East Africa Time (EAT, UTC+3), no daylight saving

Android vs iOS

92%

Android 92% iOS 7%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~26% web-usage share)
• Tecno (~13%)
• Oppo (~9%)
• Apple (~7%)
• Infinix (~7%)
• itel/others — Transsion trio (Tecno+Infinix+itel) dominates real budget-phone unit sales

Top e-commerce

• Jumia Kenya (dominant marketplace — COD + JumiaPay)
• Kilimall (China-linked B2C — prepay)
• Jiji Kenya (classifieds/P2P)
• Carrefour Kenya (Majid Al Futtaim — online grocery/retail)
• Naivas & Quickmart (supermarket online/q-commerce)
• Glovo / Bolt Food (on-demand delivery)

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00–22:00 EAT (after work) and weekday lunch ~13:00; weekend afternoons; month-end paydays & football match-nights spike betting & social activity

Creative taboos

• LGBTQ+ themes (criminalised & socially taboo — avoid entirely)
• disrespect to Christianity or Islam
• nudity/explicit content
• ethnic/tribal political provocation (e.g. Kikuyu–Luo tensions)
• gambling ads must follow the strict BCLB/KFCB rules (no influencer endorsements, mandatory warnings)

Also worth knowing

1. M-Pesa is THE payment rail you MUST support — mobile money is ~91% of adults and the default online checkout;
2. sports betting is the classic killer vertical but the 2025 crackdown bans celebrity/influencer endorsements & requires ad pre-approval — rework creative/traffic accordingly;
3. audience is extremely young (median
4. & mobile-first despite an anomalous StatCounter desktop reading;
5. English + Swahili + Sheng lift authenticity;
6. digital lending is now tightly CBK-licensed — only promote licensed DCPs