Vihiga County

Vihiga exists because the population exists—this tiny county, barely 563 km², supports over 600,000 people in one of Kenya's highest rural densities. The Maragoli and Tiriki peoples developed intensive agriculture on these fertile highlands between Kisumu and Kakamega, cultivating every available hectare as population outstripped land availability generations ago.

The numbers reveal the constraint: 98.7% of arable land is already under farming, mostly subsistence. Average farm size is 0.4 hectares—barely an acre. The median age is just 17 years, with 59% of population under 25. Agriculture employs 87.2% of households yet contributes only 34% to the economy, suggesting severe underemployment. Tea (1,530 hectares) provides some cash income; pond-based fish farming (1,200 ponds) offers modest diversification.

The county represents Kenya's rural pressure cooker: too many people on too little land, with too few alternatives. Unlike neighbors with industrial zones or mining, Vihiga offers limited non-farm employment. The "youth bulge" visible in demographics creates both potential and risk—either a development dividend if youth find productive work, or social instability if they cannot.

By 2026, Vihiga tests whether intensive smallholder farming can generate prosperity from fragmented holdings—or whether the county becomes a labor export zone, sending youth to Nairobi and Kisumu while subsistence farming barely sustains those who remain.