Nyandarua County has hit the headlines again, and not for very pleasant reasons. The county has been placed at position one in the list of counties whose residents borrow phones from friends and neighbours to make calls.
According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), 22.2 per cent of residents in Nyandarua County use mobile phones borrowed from other family members, neighbours and friends to make calls or send short messages.
The county is followed by Nakuru County and Laikipia Counties with 20.9 and 20.8 per cent of residents without mobile phones.
“Urban areas show a higher reliance on shared or borrowed phones at 11.8 per cent, compared to 11 per cent in rural areas,” KNBS states in the new household survey report for 2023/2024.
“Nyandarua had the highest number of individuals using non-owned phones, while the least was from Bomet and Narok.”
Inside Nyandarua farm with 250 dairy cows producing 60,000 litres on cheap feed
KNBS further stated that in Nyandarua, the habit of borrowing phones was more prevalent among men at 22.5 per cent in contrast to women at 22 per cent. In Nakuru though, more women than men used borrowed phones to make calls.
Countrywide, the KNBS data showed that about 11 per cent of the population uses mobile phones that belong to other people including relatives, neighbours, friends or mobile pay phones.
“Nationally, 11.3 per cent of people use mobile phones that they do not own, with a slight difference observed between males and females,” said KNBS.
The report added that usage of mobile phones remained high across all ages. For instance, in the last three months, 64.9 per cent of the population aged three years and above reported that they used a mobile phone regardless of whether the gadget was self-owned or borrowed from another person.
There was however a notable difference in usage between rural and urban areas, with usage in urban areas recorded at 76 per cent for women and 76.8 per cent for men, in contrast to usage in rural areas which was at 60.3 per cent for men and 59 per cent for women.
