Kenya breaks into the top 10 in African governance rankings
Kenya has been ranked at the 10th position out of 54 African countries by the Ibrahim Index of African Governance 2023 Report with a score of 60.3. This is despite the survey showing that Kenya’s pace of improvement in governance has been decelerating in the past five years.
However, the overall score was an improvement from the 2013 report in which Kenya took the 12th place but also the first time it made it to the top 10.
The report is based on 10 years (2014-2024) and covers various issues that contribute to the overall governance score.
“The 2024 IIAG includes over 265,000 data points, collected from 49 data sources and organized into 96 indicators under 16 sub-categories, grouped into four main categories: security and rule of law, participation, rights and inclusion, Foundations for Economic Opportunity, and Human Development,” reads the report in part.
The survey shows that Kenya is amongst countries that are “slowly improving” with quantified growth of +2.5 points, above the continental average. The most improved sub-categories were Infrastructure (+17.5), women’s equality (+11.0), sustainable environment (+6.6) while best scoring sub-categories include rural economy (81.1), women’s equality (73.4), education (67.0).
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The remarkable improvement in Infrastructure can be attributed to the increased access to energy and internet and computers in the country, over the decade.
However, security and the rule of law category recorded a decline particularly in terms of security and safety (-8.7 points) and anti-corruption (-1.8 points). This decline reflects on the following sub-categories: public administration (-2.5), business; labour environment (-1.7), and participation (-1.3).
Other than Kenya, the other countries in the top 10 are Botswana, South Africa, Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Seychelles in the top five followed by Namibia, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia.
Seychelles ranked highest in the continent and had the highest overall improvement (+10.0).
While Kenya’s governance has improved over the past decade and scores above the continental average for 75 of the 96 indicators, the pace of progress has slowed in the last five years (2019-2023).
The Ibrahim Index of African Governance was first published in 2007 and evaluates governance across African countries over the latest ten-year period (2014-2023). It defines governance as the provision of political, social, economic, and environmental public goods that every citizen is entitled to.
