| Group: | Kenyan Britons |
| Population: |  Kenya-born residents in the United Kingdom: 138,490 (2021/22 Census) : 133,416 (2021)[1] : 3,179 (2022)[2] : 1,528 (2021) Northern Ireland: 367 (2021)[3] Previous estimates: 129,633 (2001 census) 140,536 (2011 census) 121,000 (2019 ONS estimate) |
| Popplace: | London, South East England, East Midlands |
| Langs: | English (British, Kenyan), Swahili, Somali, Indian Languages |
Kenyan migration to the United Kingdom has been occurring for many decades. As a result, many people in the UK were born in Kenya, or have Kenyan ancestry. The majority of Kenya-born people who migrated to the UK are of South Asian extraction.
Most Kenyans in the UK are ethnically South Asian Kenyans who, like those in Uganda, were expelled during the late 1960s and early 1970s.[4] This community has a substantial cluster in Leicester and London.[4] The most recent growth may now be coming from ethnically African Kenyans, mirroring wider trends across the continent of economic migration to the richer industrialised nations.[4] There are also a small number of Kenyan-born people who are the children of British civil servants based there before the end of the Empire.[4]
The 2001 UK Census recorded 129,633 Kenyan-born British residents.[5] The 2011 census recorded 135,966 Kenyan-born people resident in England, 1,526 in Wales, 2,743 in Scotland and 301 in Northern Ireland, making a UK total of 140,536. The equivalent UK figure in 2019 has been estimated at 121,000 by the Office for National Statistics.
The largest proportion of Kenyan-born British residents are found in the capital, London, where around half of the Kenyan-born population in Britain resides. There are also significant populations in the South East and the East Midlands.[6]