The 2021 Kenya Time Use Survey Report is the first of its kind to be produced for Kenya. Time-use surveys are important sources of information on how women and men spend their time on different activities over a specified period. Time-use data is useful in supporting policies and programmes in the areas of gender equality, family, social, transport and culture and measuring the value of household production as well as for international comparisons.
To achieve gender equality and empowerment of all, the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development calls for all countries to monitor SDG target 5.4 on the recognition and valuation of unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family.
The production of this report was motivated by the need to measure both paid and unpaid work to obtain indicators to be used in monitoring and evaluating gender policies aimed at achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment in Kenya. It provides insights into the economic value of unpaid work, barriers and incentives to labour force participation, changing labour force practices, the balance between work and other roles, health and wellbeing, volunteering and other community participation, transport and infrastructure planning.
Nationally, population age 15 years and above spend about 12.2 per cent of their day (about 3 hours) on unpaid domestic and care work. On average women spend approximately 5 hours per day on unpaid work, which is about five times more than men (about 1 hour).
Overall, women spend approximately 7 times more time on unpaid care work (2.4 %) than men (0.4%) and about 5 times more (16.3%) on unpaid domestic work than their male counterparts (3.2%). The burden of unpaid work is highest for women in Marsabit county (30.2% approximately 7 hours) followed by Wajir (26.8%) Samburu (24.2%), Mandera (23.8%) and Garissa (23.7%) counties.
The proportion of time spent on unpaid work by girls age 15-17 years, is thrice as much (14.0%) as that of boys (4.1%) in the same age group. Elderly women age 60 years and above spend about three hours (13.0%) on unpaid domestic and care work, while their male counterparts spent about an hour (3.2%)at national level.