Kericho County


Location, Position and Size

Kericho County is one of the counties the republic of Kenya. The county seats between longitude 35o 02’ and 35o 40’ East and between the equator and latitude 0 23’ South with an altitude of about 2002m above the sea level. It borders Uasin Gishu County to the North West, Baringo County to the North, Nandi County to the North-West, Nakuru County to the East and Bomet County to the South. It has a population of 901,777 and an area of 2,111 km2. Its capital and largest town is Kericho.
Kericho County is home to the best of Kenyan Tea which is renowned worldwide for its taste with its town square even known as Chai Square. Some of the largest tea companies including Unilever Kenya, James Finlay and Williamson Tea are based here. It is also home to the popular Ketepa brand.
The defunct Buret District is now part of Kericho County.

Physical and Topical Features

County slopes gently from 2500m to about 1,800m above the sea level. The county is surrounded by a number of hills such as Tinderet Hills to the North, Mau Escarpment and Londiani hills. A good number of rivers emenate from the county including Chemosit, Kiptaret, Kipsonoi, Timbilil, Maramara, Itare, Nyando, Kipchorian and Malaget.

Climatic Conditions

County has a temperature range between 10C - 29C and rainfall of 2,125mm p.a being highest in central part of county where they plant tea and 1,400 mm p.a. in lower parts of Soin and parts of Kipkelion. County has rainy seasons April to June and October to December.

Demographics

Kericho county has a total population of 901,777 of which 450,741 are males, 451,008 females and 28 intersex persons. There are 206,036 household with an average household size of 4.4 persons per household and a population density 370 people per square kilometre.
Sub-CountyMaleFemaleIntersexTotal
Belgut72,50872,564145,072
Buret98,823100,6425199,470
Kericho East86,67183,9477170,625
Kipkelion61,06661,4604122,530
Londiani68,57069,00010137,580
Soin Sigowet63,3103663,3952126,500
Total450,741451,00828901,777

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Administrative and Political Units

Administrative Units

There are six sub counties, thirty county assembly wards, eighty five locations and two hundred and nine sub-locations.

Electoral constituencies

The county has six constituencies:
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Political Leadership

is the Governor serving his last term in office after being elected twice , and his deputy is Susan Chepkoech Kikwai. is the Senator and was elected in 2015 after the first senator Charles Keter was appointed as the by President Uhuru Kenyatta. He was also re-elected in 2017. Josephine Chepkwony Chemutai is the women representative and was elected in 2017 after winning against the who was the first women representative for the county.
For Kericho County, the County Executive Committee comprises of:-
Number
The Governor1
The Deputy Governor1
The County Secretary1
The CEC Members10
Total13

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Members of Parliament in Kericho County 2017-2022

  1. Hon. Maritim, Sylvanus of Jubliee Party Member of Parliament Ainamoi Constituency.
  2. Hon. Koech, Nelson of Jubliee PartyMember of Parliament Belgut Constituency.
  3. Hon. Mutai, Japheth Kiplangat of Jubliee Party Member of Parliament Bureti Constituency.
  4. Hon. Limo, Kirui Joseph of Jubliee Party Member of Parliament Kipkelion East Constituency.
  5. Hon. Kosgei, Hilary Kiplang’at of Jubliee Party Member of Parliament Kipkelion West Constituency
  6. Hon. Koros, Benard Kipsengeret of Jubliee Party Member of Parliament Sigowet–Soin Constituency.

    Education

The are 1054 ECD centres 803 primary schools and 229 secondary schools. The county has also 1 teachers training colleges, 6 Youth Polytechnics, 80 adult training institutions and 6 technical training institutions.
CategoryPublicPrivateTotalEnrolment
ECD Centres5654891,05445,620
Primary schools526277803242,034
Secondary schools2141522969,081
Youth Polytechnics6061,525
Technical Training Institutes606
Adult Education Centres4,697

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Health

The are a total of 136 health facilities in the county with one county referral hospital. County has 2,084 health personnel of different cadre. The immunisation coverage is at 61% and still below the national target of 90%.
HIV prevalence is at 3.5% below the national 5.9%.
Government*FBOPrivateNGOTOTAL
Hospitals72514
Health centres1368136180
Dispensaries1275252159
Clinics110213

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Transport and Communication

The county is covered by 1,110.7 Km of road network. of this 411.1 km is covered by earth surface, 484.7 km is murram surface and 214.9 km is covered by bitumen.
There are 8 Post Offices with 2,299 installed letter boxes, 2,079 rented letter boxes and 220 vacant letter boxes.

Trade and Commerce

There are 25 trading centres, 5,813 registered businesses, 5807 licensed retail traders and 5,740 licensed wholesale traders.
A number of industries are in Kericho such as cement industry and steel industry, Soin Sugar Company all three of them located in Soin ward, 18 tea processing factories, in various sub-counties, dairy processing plants.

Services and Urbanisation

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