Pneumonia, cancer, and cardiac arrest have been listed as the leading causes of death for Kenyans over the past five years by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).
In the Kenya Vital Statistics Report by KNBS, the three ailments were revealed to have been the major causes of loss of life amongst Kenyans from 2020 to 2024 in health facilities.
In 2020, cardiac arrests, also known as cardiopulmonary arrests, accounted for 9,332 registered deaths, the most in the country, and were followed by pneumonia (9,061 deaths) and cancer (6,078 deaths). This was out of the 99,355 deaths recorded at health facilities.
However, in the following years running till 2024, pneumonia was listed as the leading cause of death, accounting for an average of over 11,000 deaths during that period. It was followed by cancer and cardiac arrest.
In 2021, pneumonia killed 15,468 people, the highest number of deaths ever documented. Additionally, the second most common cause of death is now cancer. There was a noteworthy finding regarding kidney diseases. In 2020, 2,585 people died from kidney diseases.
But it wasn't until last year, when they caused 4,247 cases, that such illnesses were noticed. This appears to be related to problems with the government's Social Health Authority (SHA) programme, where complaints about the absence of a kidney disease package were noted.
Other leading causes of death in 2024 included hypertension (5,035), anaemia (4,572), cardiovascular diseases (7,478), prematurity and birth asphyxia (4,223), injuries(4,574) and diabetes (3,822).
The three diseases (pneumonia, cardiac arrest, and cancer) also accounted for the leading causes of death amongst both males and females over the five years.
According to the report, pneumonia and cancer were the top two leading causes of death among males in 2023 and 2024. Sepsis, which ranked fifth in 2023, was not one of the top ten causes of death among males in 2024.
Also, cancer emerged as the leading cause of registered deaths (4,498) among females in 2024. Between 2020 and 2024, pneumonia remained among the top two leading causes of registered deaths among females.
Other diseases such as sepsis, heart diseases, kidney diseases, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Meningitis, respiratory infections, and diabetes were listed as the leading causes of death in health facilities.
Meanwhile, prematurity and birth asphyxia remained the leading cause of death amongst infants during the five years, accounting for 26.7 per cent of all registered infant deaths in 2024. Pneumonia and respiratory infections were either the second or third leading cause of registered deaths between 2020 and 2024, except for 2023.
For children below five years, prematurity and birth asphyxia and pneumonia were registered as the top two leading causes of death consistently throughout the five years.
For children aged 5-14 years, the leading cause of registered deaths in health facilities from 2020 to 2024 was pneumonia, with 2024 being the only exception. In 2024, anaemia was listed as the leading cause of death.
