A majority of women aged between 20 and 49 years from Mt Kenya counties are overweight or outright obese compared with their counterparts in other counties.

The worst affected counties are Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Embu, with data showing four of 10 women are overweight in the three counties.

Embu has the highest number of overweight women in Kenya at 36 per cent, while Kirinyaga and Nyeri are tied at 35 per cent.

Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Murang’a top the list of counties with obese women in Kenya, with statistics indicating that three in every 10 women in the three counties are obese, representing 29 per cent, 28 per cent, and 27 per cent, respectively. However, only 19 per cent of Embu women are obese.

Conversely, Nyeri and Kirinyaga are among counties with the least number of women with normal nutritional status of below 35 percent.

Other counties with a quarter of women in the 20-49 age group who are overweight include Isiolo (34 percent), Nyandarua and Nairobi (33 percent each), Kiambu and Muranga (32 percent each), Makueni and Nakuru (31 percent each), Machakos and Uasin Gishu (30 percent each).

Kajiado and Kisii are also on the list with 29 percent each, as well as Kakamega, Busia, Garissa, Kilifi, Tana River, Taita Taveta and Tharaka Nithi (28 percent) each.

Also on the list are Vihiga (27 percent), Laikipia (26.7 percent); Nyamira, Homa Bay and Kisumu (26 percent each); and Trans Nzoia and Siaya (25.5 percent and 25 percent, respectively).

The data, published in the 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), show that other counties with a high prevalence of obesity among women include Lamu (26 percent); Kiambu and Nairobi (24 percent each); Nyandarua, Isiolo and Mombasa (23 percent each); and Kajiado (22 percent).

Only eight counties – Turkana, Tana River, Samburu, Marsabit, Mandera, Kilifi, Bomet and Bungoma – had low cases of obesity of less than 10 percent.

Meanwhile, Marsabit and Samburu counties have the highest number of women categorised as moderately or severely thin at 23 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively, followed by Turkana (21 per cent), Tana River (14 per cent), Wajir (11 per cent) and Isiolo (10.2 per cent).

Nyeri had no single case of a woman in this category, while in 16 counties—Busia, Vihiga, Nairobi, Kisii, Siaya, Migori, Kiambu, Kirinyaga, Makueni, Murang’a, Nyandarua, Taita Taveta, Tharaka Nithi and Uasin Gishu – only one percent of women were identified as being severely thin.

Counties with the largest number of fit women (regarding health) are Kitui (61 percent), followed by Elgeyo Marakwet, Migori, Bungoma, Baringo, Nandi, Bomet, Siaya, Homay Bay, Kisumu, Kilifi, Mandera and West Pokot, where six in every 10 women are classified as having a normal nutritional status.

KDHS data also reveals that Kenyan women between the ages of 15 to 19 have maintained their health wellness compared with 20-49-year-olds.

In all counties, there is a sharp decrease in the number of women with normal nutritional status as those aged 15 to 19 transition into the 20-49 age group.

In Kakamega for instance, eight in every 10 teenage women are of normal nutritional status, a number that dips but almost doubles to four in every eight women of the in the 20-49 age group.

Similar trends are observed in the Central region, with counties struggling with high cases of overweight and obesity among older women.