Kenya’s refugee population grows by 300,000 in five years — KNBS

The number of refugees and asylum seekers has been increasing steadily in the last five years, rising from 540,068 in 2021 to 835,793 in 2025 THE KNBS Economic Survey 2026 shows.

Last year, the number grew by 1.4 per cent or 823,932 in 2024, while the number of children registered as refugees and asylum seekers decreased by 3.3 to 426,097 as that of adults increased by 6.5 per cent in 2025, the report shows.

During the period under review, there 406, 725 in Dadaab Camp, while an increase of 4.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent to 310,755 and 118,313 was noted in Kakuma and urban centres, respectively.

According to the report, Somalia remained the leading country of origin with the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers, accounting for 54.9 per cent of all registered refugees in Kenya, followed by South Sudan at 24.3 per cent.

However, overall, Somalia showed a decrease of registered refugees to 459,131 from 468,507 recorded in 2024, while Sudanese refugees grew from 192,910 in 2024 to 202,863 in 2025.

“The Somali decrease is a result of the data cleaning exercise that removed the Kenyans who had registered as refugees in Dadaab Refugee Camp. The persistent conflict in South Sudan also contributes to the increase in population,” the report states.

There was a contrast in the growth of refugees between 2023 and 2034, when the number of refugees exponentially shot up from 691,868 to 823,932, unlike the previous years.

“The 2024 drastic increase in population is a result of the resumption of registration of new arrivals in Daadab Refugee camp since 2016. Registration in this location resumed in May 2023, and the backlog has since been cleared with the normal flow of events,” the report explains.

Eritrea recorded the highest increase of refugees and asylum seekers of 99.8 per cent from 3,259 in 2024 to 7,839 in 2025.

DR Congo had 66,043 registered refugees, up from 63,203 the previous year, while Ethiopians grew from 42,227 in 2024 to 42,897 in 2025.

Burundi retained the 5th position, registering 34,585 in 2025, an increase from 32,380 the previous year, while Sudan had 13,349, up from 12,169 in 2024.

Ugandan citizens registered as refugees were recorded at 4,307, up from 4,035 in 2024, while Rwanda had 3,071 refugees, up from 3,024 the previous year.

In terms of gender, there were 222,230 male child refugees, while female children accounted for 203,867, making it a total of 426,097; meaning more than half of the refugees were children aged below 18 years.

Adult refugees were recorded as 205,523 for males and 204,173 for females, totalling 409,696.  Overall, there slightly higher number of male refugees at 427,753, while women are 408,040, which may shatter the myth of more women in refugee camps than men.