Unemployment and poverty have emerged as the most serious problems facing Kenyans, according to a new TIFA poll released on September 9, 2026.
The survey found that 44 per cent of respondents identified unemployment or poverty as the country’s biggest challenge.
Inflation, high prices and high taxes followed at 25 per cent, while corruption was cited by 19 per cent of respondents.
Together, economic concerns accounted for about 69 per cent of responses, highlighting the dominance of economic issues among Kenyans’ concerns.
TIFA said more than two-thirds of Kenyans mentioned the economy as the country’s “most serious problem”, whether their responses focused on unemployment and poverty or inflation and high prices.
“A variety of other problems attracted negligible mentions (only about 7%),” TIFA said.
Poor leadership was cited by seven per cent of respondents, making it the fourth most commonly mentioned concern.
Lack of access to health care, threats to peace and stability, and political or ethnic tensions each received two per cent.
Crime and insecurity, as well as lack of access to or quality of education, each attracted one per cent of responses.
The findings are based on fieldwork conducted between June 13 and June 22, 2026.
The study drew on a nationally representative sample of 2,048 respondents across nine regions. These were Central Rift, Coast, Lower Eastern, Mt Kenya, Nairobi, Northern, Nyanza, South Rift and Western.
Data were collected through face-to-face household interviews, conducted primarily in Swahili. English was also used where preferred by respondents.
The survey has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.18 percentage points, although TIFA noted that the margin is higher for smaller sub-samples.
The findings place economic pressures significantly ahead of other issues identified by respondents as Kenya’s most serious problem.
