It’s now official: the best paying jobs in Kenya are offered by international NGOs and organizations in the financial services sector.
At the same time, the worst paying jobs in Kenya are in the agri-based industry.
The information has been revealed by data availed by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
The same information has also indicated that the highest paying jobs in Kenya –those paying over Sh100,000.00 per month are concentrated in the top 2 sectors.
Here is an in-depth analysis:
Best paying jobs in Kenya: Key Sectors analysis according to the concentration of top earners (over shs.100000)
In the analysis, some of Kenya’s top contributors to the GDP were discovered to pay the least despite some believing them to offer the most marketable jobs in Kenya.
These are:
| Sector | GDP proportion |
| Agriculture | 34.2 per cent |
| Transport | 8 percent |
| Manufacturing | 7.7 per cent |
| Real estate | 7 per cent |
Agriculture’s had a meager 0.9 percent of the top earners, manufacturing (2 percent), real estate sector (3.1 per cent), while ICT sector where some of the best paying companies in Kenya such as Safaricom are had 3.2 percent of the workers pocketing above Sh100,000.00
In comparison, the foreign-supported NGOs have a total of about 1,345 staff with 270 of these earning more than Ksh100,000.00 monthly, making them better than some of the best paying government jobs in Kenya.
These companies had zero employees pocketing less than KSh20,000 monthly.
In comparison, 60 percent or 202,311 workers in the agriculture industry earn less than Ksh25,000.00 per month.
This implies that the best paying degree courses in Kenya are NGO–related (the NGOs are traditionally well funded).
The other group is the finance related -these rely on highly-skilled professionals- and again you’ll find some of the best paying companies in Kenya in this space.
Overall, the financial services industry was the runners-up with about 11,598 employees (15.3 percent of their 75,621 workforce earn above Sh100,000.00 with no employee earning below Ksh15,000 per month).
Specifically, strategic jobs in banks, investment companies, and insurance firms pay way better as does senior management positions especially if you’re technology-savvy because of the increased automation in these firms.
Branch managers, investment officers, analysts, chief executives, and the increasingly prestigious CFA jobs in Kenya also pocket good salaries.
Best paying jobs in Kenya: Other sectors paying well
Other professionals to make it to the list of best paying jobs include ambassadors (think the UN and various embassies), commercial attaches, and programme officers.
Some of the most demanding jobs in Kenya such as software engineering didn’t make it to the list, perhaps because most developers are not formally employed.
Best paying jobs in Kenya: how other sectors performed
From the results, it seems that the highest paying talents as far as the arts and entertainment industry are movie as well as television production managers not to forget advertising creative.
Event organizers also have a respectable income.
Overall, arts and entertainment come third with 7.5 percent (or 550 out of 7243 employees) earning over shs.100000 and had the lowest-paid staff being paid Ksh10,000 per month.
Another sector to register a notable concentration of top earning staff in Kenya was transport with 1.74 percent (or 1578 staff of its 90647 workforce) getting over shs100000.
Which are the other worst paying industries?
There was no employee from the mining and household services sectors earning overs Sh100000.00 as per the tax returns filed with the KRA.
For example, most households pay their gardeners, security staff, and cooks below the government set minimum wage that starts from Ksh13,000-Ksh15,000 per month.
This could be because these sectors mostly rely on low-skilled labourers.
These two joins people working in agribusiness in the lowest income groups in Kenya.
Which is the best paying place to work if you’re looking for a highly paid job?
The data confirmed that most paying companies in Kenya are in Nairobi and Kenya’s other leading cities Mombasa and Kisumu.
Indeed, there are dozens of well paying jobs in Nairobi ’s NGOs and financial industry (plus a few similarly well-paying positions in those other cities).
Conclusion
According to the best paying jobs in Kenya survey, the worst paying companies in Kenya are in the agricultural sector while the best paying jobs happen to be in the NGOs and the financial services sector in Nairobi and Kenya’s other major cities, Mombasa and Kisumu.
In between the two you’ll find medium salaries for Kenyans working in the arts and entertainment industry and selected cadres in areas such as ICT.
Overall, the highest-earning employees are 79,983 representing a measly 2.89 percent of Kenya’s formal sector workers.
At the same time, nearly three quarters (74.58 percent of formally employed workers earn less than ksh50,000 reflecting the massive income inequality and the widening of the gap between Kenya’s rich and the poor.
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