Islam by country · Africa
Islam in Kenya: history and Muslim population data
Explore CoMPS research on the historical journey of Islam in Kenya, alongside population data and an interactive timeline.
Open Kenya in the interactive map
History of Islam in Kenya
The Republic of Kenya has an area of 580,367 sq km and its map is presented in Figure 3.3.5a. It was occupied by the British in 1888 and gained its independence from the UK in 1963. According to census data, the Muslim population increased from 0.23 million or 4.3% in 1948, to 0.31 million or 3.8% in 1962, to 2.26 million or 8.0% in 1999, to 4.30 million or 11.2% in 2009 and 5.15 million or 10.9% in 2019.
Thus, assuming that the percentage of Muslims will continue to increase by one percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to near thirteen million or 15% by 2050 and 23 million or 20% by 2100.
Historical Muslim population dataset for Kenya
The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.
| Year | Total population (thousands) | Muslim population (thousands) | Muslim share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 1,830 | 78.69 | 4.30% |
| 2000 | 30,398 | 2,438 | 8.02% |
| 2100 | 112,466 | 22,493 | 20.00% |
For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.