Kenya’s manufacturing value added fell to 7.1% of GDP in 2025.

Higher is better. A higher share is better because it means more of the economy's income comes from making goods, which tends to support steadier jobs and exports. Kenya's latest figure, for 2025, is 7.1% of GDP, down from 7.3% a year earlier, a fall of 0.17 percentage points. That is the lowest reading since 2016, the start of the window. The high over the same span was 9.3% of GDP in 2016.

Why it matters. A manufacturing share of 7.1% of GDP means factories account for a modest slice of Kenyan output, so fewer households draw wages from industrial employment than the 2016 level would have supported. Firms that make goods carry a smaller weight in the economy, and the state collects its tax revenue from a base that leans more on other sectors. A rise back towards the 2016 level would show up first in factory hiring and in industrial exports.