The price of eating a healthy meal in Kenya has almost doubled in the last eight years, leaving millions of people unable to afford the nutritious food needed for a balanced diet. New data from United Nations agencies shows the rising cost of healthy food continues to widen the gap between what families need to eat and what they can afford as food insecurity remains a major challenge.
The latest findings show that the daily cost of a healthy diet increased by 75.79 percent, rising from $2.56, or about Sh114.68 at the current purchasing power parity (PPP) rate, in 2017 to $4.50, about Sh201.6, in 2025.
The International Monetary Fund currently places Kenya's PPP at 44.8 against the international dollar, a measure used to compare the purchasing power and living standards of different countries.
The report was prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United Nations Children's Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organisation.
According to the FAO, a healthy diet is one that provides enough nutrients through a balanced, varied and moderate intake of food while avoiding unhealthy excesses.
To calculate the cost, the agencies used what the FAO describes as a healthy diet basket. The basket is made up of the least expensive foods available locally across six food groups: starchy staples, animal-source foods, legumes, nuts and seeds, oils and fats, fruits, and vegetables. It is designed to provide 2,330 kilocalories per person every day and represents the minimum amount needed to eat healthily. The calculation does not show what people actually consume and does not include the cost of cooking food or sharing meals among household members.
The data also shows Kenya has almost matched the average cost of a healthy diet in Eastern Africa. In 2017, Kenya's daily cost stood at $2.56 compared to the regional average of $2.84. By 2025, Kenya's cost had risen to $4.50 while the Eastern Africa average reached $4.34.
Kenya's figure is also close to the average for lower-middle-income countries, where the daily cost of a healthy diet stood at $4.36 in 2025.
The agencies say several factors have pushed up food prices across Africa. These include poor harvests caused by climate shocks, higher fuel and transport costs, dependence on imported food, post-harvest losses and changing global food markets. The increase has been most noticeable in nutrient-rich foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and lean proteins, which make up the largest share of the cost of a healthy diet.
According to the report, animal-source foods, fruits and vegetables account for nearly 70 percent of the total cost of a healthy diet in the region even though they provide well below half of the daily calorie requirement.
“Inflation continued to raise food prices in 2025…The percentage of people who cannot afford a healthy diet (PUA) remains highest in Africa, where it is estimated to have reached 66.6 percent in 2025, more than double the levels currently estimated for Asia (28.9 percent) and Latin America and the Caribbean (25.7 percent)," read the report.
The report further shows that the increase recorded in Kenya was higher than the global average, where the cost of a healthy diet rose from $2.94 in 2017 to $4.28 in 2025. It also marked the first time Kenya's cost moved above the world average during the period covered by the report despite the country remaining a lower-middle-income economy with lower incomes than many richer countries where healthy diets cost less.
The findings also reveal that 76.3 percent of Kenyans, about 43.9 million people, could not afford a healthy diet in 2025. This was higher than the 69.8 percent, or about 34.3 million people, recorded in 2017.
The report notes that the highest number of people unable to afford healthy meals was recorded in 2021, when 78 percent of the population was locked out of nutritious diets following the Covid-19 pandemic and the food and fuel price increases that came after it.