The State of Health and Well-being Among Young People in Kenya: Statistics and Challenges

Nov 13, 2025 0

Adolescence and young adulthood are critical periods for the development of mental and substance use disorders, with many disorders emerging during this time.

Mental and substance use disorders are a major public health concern globally, with high rates of disability, morbidity, and mortality associated with these. In low- and middle-income countries, such as Kenya, mental health is often given low priority, and resources for the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders are limited.

Mental Health Challenges

In 2019, among 10-24-year-olds in Kenya, mental disorders ranked as the second leading cause of disability, following unintentional injuries, and accounted for 248,936 DALYs or 9.4% of 2,656,546 total DALYs. Substance use disorders accounted for 15,022 DALYs. Depressive, anxiety, and conduct disorders accounted for the most DALYs of mental disorders accounting for 3.1%, 2.3% and 1.7% of the total DALYs, respectively. The main risk factors for incident DALYs in 10-24-year-olds were bullying and victimization (66.5%).

Improved surveillance of mental health and substance use burden at national and county levels is needed.

Key Mental Health Statistics (2019, 10-24 year olds):

Disorder	DALYs	Percentage of Total DALYs
Mental Disorders	248,936	9.4%
Substance Use Disorders	15,022	-
Depressive Disorders	-	3.1%
Anxiety Disorders	-	2.3%
Conduct Disorders	-	1.7%

Mental health awareness

Malnutrition: A Persistent Issue

Kenya is faced with a triple burden of malnutrition, namely undernutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight), micronutrient deficiencies, over-nutrition (overweight and obesity), and associated diet-related non-communicable diseases.

The Kenya National Micronutrient Survey of 2011 depicted the country as burdened by high micronutrient deficiencies with the most prevalent being zinc, vitamin A, iron, and iodine deficiencies. Zinc deficiency prevalence rates stood at 70 percent, with preschool children being most affected at 81.6 percent, school-age children at 79.0 percent, pregnant women at 67.9 percent, and non-pregnant women at 79.9 percent.

Recently released Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS) 2022 estimates that 18 percent of children 6-59 months are still stunted, 5 percent are wasted, 10 percent are underweight, and 3 percent are overweight, way above the World Health Assembly targets.

The Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) Kenya Study (2019) estimated a loss of Kenya Shillings 373.9 billion (USD 3.1 billion) equivalent to 6.9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014 due to child undernutrition. Childhood malnutrition results in reduced productivity, high costs of health-related treatment of malnutrition, and high education costs due to class repetition and absenteeism.

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GAIN's Initiatives in Kenya

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is a Swiss-based foundation launched at the United Nations in 2002 to tackle the human suffering caused by malnutrition. Kenya is one of the countries impacted by malnutrition. GAIN’s Strategy aims to transform food systems to make healthier diets from sustainable food systems accessible to all people and especially those whose are most vulnerable to shocks.

GAIN has been contributing to improving the nutritional status of Kenyans since 2010, with an initial focus on supporting the Government of Kenya to introduce the fortification of maize flour, wheat flour, and edible oils. Since then, we have diversified our programmatic work to integrate various efforts into a food system approach that links access and demand for nutritious safe food.

GAIN supports the efforts and priorities of the national and county governments by providing our expertise in nutrition and healthy diets to support the development of policies and plans.

Key GAIN Projects in Kenya:

CASCADE (CAtalyzing Strengthened policy aCtion for heAlthy Diets and ResiliencE): Aims to improve food security and reduce malnutrition among women and children.
Vegetables for All: Aims to improve dietary diversity for urban and peri-urban consumers by increasing vegetable consumption.
Nutrition in ASALs Within Integrated Resilient Institutions (Nawiri): A research and development program implemented in arid and semi-arid counties to reduce acute malnutrition.
SUN Business Network (SBN): A private sector focused nutrition initiative that engages and mobilizes businesses to improve the consumption of safe food.
Food Systems Dashboard: A resource center for decision-makers to find high-quality data and analytics on their country’s food systems.
Resilient Markets: A project that facilitates resilient and sustainable food security and nutrition-enabling environment within urban informal fresh food markets.
Food and Land Use (FOLU) Coalition: A global community of change-makers working to accelerate the transformation of food and land use systems.

Youth Perspectives on Health and Well-being

Kenyan youth are concerned about the health status and healthcare services in their communities, as well as issues of community trust of youths and perceived risks of political misuse and emotional suffering.

Our findings suggest that youth transitioning into adulthood in resource-constrained areas experience feelings of powerlessness and inability to take charge over their own life.

Adolescents in Kenya, for example, conceptualize health and wellbeing around issues of economic opportunities, state of the environment and neighborhoods, political engagement and stability, healthcare services, and social interactions-including trust and emotional wellbeing.

With the experiences of historical and environmental injustices evident in political violence and high unemployment rates, the male youth bodies are associated with crime and the youth feel the lack of trust in the community. The female youth, on the other hand, are delicate bodies at risk of sexual violence; thus, they need to be regulated and protected.

Additionally, with the changing social and economic structures, young Kenyans, especially those in the formal settlements, experience the weakening of the collective societal systems as parents spend more time in economic activities. The current generation are therefore growing with limited parental and societal support.