Kenya

Kenya: Growing Economy, Moderate Debt, Modest Defense Outlay

Kenya's economy was measured at $120.34 billion in GDP for 2024, per World Bank WDI, supporting a population of 56,432,944 the same year and the same source. GDP per capita came to $2,132.43 in 2024 (World Bank WDI).

Public debt is projected at 71.6 percent of GDP in 2026, according to the IMF's World Economic Outlook — a forward-looking figure rather than an observed outturn, since it is dated two years ahead of the other 2024 metrics in this bundle. Foreign reserves stood at $10.07 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI.

Defense spending, per SIPRI's 2025 Military Expenditure Database, came to $1.47 billion, or 1.068 percent of GDP by SIPRI's own GDP series for that year. That ratio should not be recomputed against the World Bank's 2024 GDP figure above, as the two are drawn from different series and years. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 24,000 active military personnel in 2022 and a Composite Index of National Capability score of 0.00226, also from 2022.

Governance indicators from V-Dem's 2025 release show an electoral democracy index of 0.563, a liberal democracy index of 0.446, and a state capacity score of 0.64 — the latter notably higher than the democracy indices, suggesting administrative capacity that outpaces the openness of the political system by V-Dem's measures.

Data gaps

Energy figures are mixed in currency. Primary energy consumption was 0.3203 exajoules in 2023 and electricity generation 14.04 terawatt-hours in 2025, both per Our World in Data's Energy dataset — comparatively recent. But oil and gas production are both listed as zero and dated to 2016, nearly a decade stale; this should be read as the latest available OWID entry for each, not as confirmation that Kenya has no current oil or gas output. No more recent production series is available in this bundle.

All other series in this file carry recent years (2022–2026) and are attributed above; none should be treated as describing conditions outside the year stated for each.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, SIPRI Milex, Correlates of War National Material Capabilities, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy).