Christianity is the dominantreligion in Kenya, adhered to by an estimated 85.5% of the total population.Islam is the second largest religion inKenya, practiced by 10.9 percent[1] of Kenyans. Other faiths practiced inKenya areBaháʼí,Buddhism,Hinduism andtraditional religions.
Kenya is asecular state and freedom of religion is enshrined in the nation's constitution.Christmas andEaster are recognised as public holidays.[2]
According to the Census figures from 2009 and 2019:[3]Christianity grew by 2.2% whilst Islam declined by 0.35%.
| Religion | 2009 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Protestant | 48% | 33.42% |
| Catholicism | 23.46% | 20.6% |
| Evangelicals | – | 20.44% |
| Muslim | 11.21% | 10.86% |
| African Instituted Churches | – | 6.97% |
| Other Christian | 11.87% | 3.67% |
| No Religion | 2.4% | 1.6% |
| Other Religions | 1.45% | 0.99% |
| Traditional | 1.65% | 0.68% |
| Orthodox | – | 0.43% |
| Hindu | 0.14% | 0.13% |
| Buddhism | 0.16% | 0.16% |
| Total | 100% | 100% |
| Major Denominations | Members (millions) |
|---|---|
| Roman Catholic | 10[5] |
| Anglican | 5[6] |
| Presbyterian | 4[7] |
| Orthodox | 0.2[8] |
| Adventists | 0.5[9] |
| Lutheran | 0.1 |
| Methodist | 0.3[10] |
Roman Catholicism is the largest single Christian denomination in Kenya.[11] Kenya has about 10 million Roman Catholics. Roman Catholicism was first brought toKenya in the fifteenth century by thePortuguese, and was spread rapidly during the 20th century by missionaries. In 2019, theRoman Catholic Church made up 20.6% of the population, about 9.7 million Kenyans.[1] In the same year, over 30% of Kenyans identified asProtestant, 20% identified asEvangelical, and 7% identified as members ofAfrican instituted churches.[1]
Protestant or Evangelical denominations include theAnglican Church of Kenya,Africa Inland Mission,Seventh-day Adventist Church, thePresbyterian Church of East Africa,Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK)[12] (and the smallerKenya Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC)[13]), and theBaptist Convention of Kenya among others.
An estimated 30-35% of Kenya's population arePentecostals.[citation needed]
In 2017, Kenya had the highest number ofQuakers of any country in the world, with around 119,285 members.[14][15]
TheEastern Orthodox Church has over 200,000 members[16] making it the third largest Orthodox Church in Sub-Saharan Africa (after the Oriental OrthodoxEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church andEritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church).[note 1] In 2016 two new dioceses were created within the Orthodox Archdiocese of Kenya, namely the Diocese of Nyeri and Mount Kenya, as well as the Diocese of Kisumu and West Kenya, both falling under the Archdiocese ofNairobi, which has been presided over by ArchbishopMakarios (Tillyrides)[18] since 2001.
Other statistically significant non-Catholic and non-Protestant movements include theNew Apostolic Church,Jehovah's Witnesses,United Pentecostal Church International, andBranhamism. The non-Protestant and non-Catholic groups make up about 11.8% of the population.
As of the end of 2019,The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claimed more than 14,000 members in 54 official congregations in Kenya.[19] There are also fiveFamily History Centers in Kenya, along with an employment resource centre in Nairobi.[20]Joseph W. Sitati, a native of Kenya, is ageneral authority of the church and current president of the Africa CentralArea, which oversees the church's activities in about 16 countries on the African continent. The church has announced plans to build atemple in Nairobi, with it still in the planning stages, as of early 2021. The church has twostakes in Nairobi, with other areas either havingdistricts orbranches, who are directly overseen by themissions, although the church does not yet have a presence in much of the country. The church previously had one mission based in Nairobi, although Mombasa was in the Tanzania Dar es Salaam Mission, which was organized in July 2020, while a small area along the Ugandan border was in the Uganda Kampala Mission.
Due to the proposed law of the right to worship, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of churches in the country recently.[21][citation needed]
A 2015 study estimated there to be some 70,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in Kenya.[22]
Islam is the religion of 10.91% of the population.[1] Most Muslims in Kenya areSunni, mostly of theShafii school of Islamic law. Approximately 8% arenon-denominational Muslims,[23] 7% identify themselves asShia and about 4% identify themselves asAhmadi Muslims,[24] as well as a small proportion ofIbadism practitioners.[25] Muslims are concentrated mainly in theCoastal andNorth Eastern Regions.Nairobi has several mosques and a notable Muslim population. There are large and historically significant populations ofSwahili Muslims on the coast (most notably inMombasa,Lamu andMalindi), in the Western Province, and smaller numbers ofSomali,Arab andSouth Asian Muslims.
ReligiousShari'ah courts, calledKadhi courts, are given jurisdiction over certain civil matters such as divorce and inheritance under the constitution of Kenya. Muslims have complained that they are targeted and discriminated against by the government, particularly since the1998 United States embassy bombings in Nairobi and elsewhere.
African religions are typically based on natural phenomena and reverence to ancestors. The dead are presumed to merely transform into another state of being and capable of bringing good fortune or calamity to the living. Most religious rites are therefore centred on appeasing the dead through sacrifices and proper burial rites. The dead's wishes must also be followed to the letter.
Followers of the traditional Kikuyu religion believe Ngai resides onMount Kenya and say their prayers facing the mountain. Followers of the traditional Mijikenda religion have their holy shrines in the forests where they offer sacrifices and pray.
TheMaasai,Kisii,Turkana,Samburu, andPokot tribes also have significant numbers of persons adhering exclusively to traditional African religions.
There are ethnically Gujarati Hindus living in Kenya.[26][27][28] The numbers are estimated to be around 60,287 people or 0.13% of the population. They are mainly located in the capital of Kenya,Nairobi, and other urban areas such asMombasa,Eldoret,Thika, andKisumu.[1]
In the 2019 Census, 755,750 people reported themselves as having "no religion".[1] This is 1.6% of the total, making this group larger than the groups reporting themselves as traditionalists, Hindus, or other religion. 73,253, 0.16%, reported that they did not know their religion. There is a stigma against people who are atheists in Kenya.[29][30] A Gallup poll conducted in 2012 found that 90% of Kenyans considered themselves "a religious person", 9% considered themselves "a non religious person", while 1% define themselves as "a convinced atheist", placing Kenya in the top 10 religious populations in the world.[31]
Since 1999,[32]Buddhism has grown in Kenya. There are more than 1000 Buddhists in Kenya. Buddhism is also one of the fastest[33] growing religions in Kenya.
Nairobi Buddhist Vihara/Temple is the main centre of Buddhism in Kenya. Nairobi Vihara conducts missions and meditation[34] programs to promote Buddhism in Kenya.[citation needed]
Baháʼí Faith is present in Kenya since 1945, almost 1% of the population follows this faith.[35][36][37] In the 1990s the Baháʼís in Kenya participated in a nationwide community health project including vaccinations, maintaining latrines, and developing clean water sources.[38]
Kenya has no state religion andfreedom of religion is enshrined in the nation'sconstitution.[39]
In 2023, the country scored 2 out of 4 for religious freedom; this was mainly due to Shabaab terror threats against Christians and consequential intimidation of local Muslims.[40] Most of these incidents have taken place in the north-east of the country.[41]
Media related toReligion in Kenya at Wikimedia Commons