Kitui County Annual Development Plan 2019/2020

Abstract

Kitui County is one of the three Kenyan Counties inhabited by the majority Kamba community. The Kamba people were historically long - distance traders. The trade inclination has made the kambas highly receptive and hospitable to visitors. With its headquarters at Kitui town, The County is resource rich with commercially viable coal reserves in Mui Basin. Other mineral resource includes limestone, iron ore and sand. Forty-six (46) percent of the Tsavo East National Park is in Kitui County and has a great heritage with great untapped tourism potential. Proximity to Nairobi and the Standard Gauge Railway offers great opportunities for economic transformation. Permanent rivers, namely, Tana and Athi flow through the County. The County had an estimated population of about 1.1 million persons in 2016. Despite the great potential, Kitui County is among the Arid and Semi-Arid (ASAL) counties characterized by relatively high levels of poverty. The level of absolute poverty is estimated at 47.5 percent compared to the national average of 36.1 percent in 2016. About 522,000 persons or 3.2 percent of the Kenyan poor live in the County. Food poverty is estimated at 39.4 percent compared to the national average of 32 percent. About fifty percent of the population does not have access to improved water sources and 57.6 percent of households spent thirty minutes or more to fetch drinking water. The County is not a member of any regional economic block, but it forms part of the proposed Vision 2030 Metropolitan region of Kitui-Mwingi-Meru.