Nairobi County registered the highest number of marriages in Kenya last year, according to the Kenya Vital Statistics Report 2024, released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) on Wednesday.
A total of 5,826 marriage were legally registered in Nairobi, which is 39.6% of all marriages registered in the country last year. The capital’s supremacy is a testimony to its role as the country’s number one center for legal marriages.
Other leading counties in regards to marriage registration numbers were Kiambu (4,844), Machakos (4,807), Nakuru (3,819), and Uasin Gishu (3,179). Collectively, the five represented a significant percentage of Kenya’s total marriage registrations for 2024.
But while thousands of marriages were reported in some counties, others had not even crossed a dozen. Only 8 marriages were reported for Wajir, then Turkana (16), Lamu (20), Garissa (21) and Tana River (22). KNBS noted that these counties have been reporting fewer than 10 marriages annually between 2020 to 2024.
The report also observed regional differences in marriage trends in the last five years. Nairobi posted steady growth, with marriages going up from 3,796 in 2020 to 5,826 in 2024, a show of increasing popularity of formal union in the city.
Kiambu County on the other hand showed less consistency. With 1,098 weddings in 2021, the numbers slightly picked up to 1,235 in 2022, before falling sharply to 747 in 2024.
Machakos saw a more stable upward trend, with 813 weddings in 2023 rising to 1,112 in 2024.
Marriage Registrations Drop Nationally
At the national level, Kenya saw its registered marriages spike dramatically between 2020 and 2023, reaching a high of 20,600 in 2023. That rate slowed some in 2024, with 15,045 marriages registered as of Dec. 31, data reported to the Office of the Attorney General and Department of Justice indicated.
In marriage types, Christian and civil marriages dominated. Christian marriages hit their peak in 2021 at 13,456 registrations, and civil marriages hit their peak in 2023 at 7,185.
The remaining two, customary and Hindu marriages, were far fewer. The customary marriages were only 11, registered within a period of five years, eight being in Kwale and three in Kisumu, while the Hindu marriages were 18, spread evenly in Nairobi and Mombasa.
It also reported 359 marriages with no specified type, mostly in Nairobi (217) and attributed to data entry errors by KNBS, where it advised that Kenya’s system of marriage registration should enhance digital accuracy.
