Compared to Kenyan nationals, the Shona community is poorer; has larger household sizes and lives in crowded conditions; has lower access to secondary education; is more likely to be self-employed; and has been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Shona community has a 24 percent higher chance of being poor than the urban Kenyan population. Over half of the Shona community (53 percent) live below the national urban poverty line, compared to 29 percent of the broader urban population and 36 percent of all Kenyans (urban and rural). Similar trends are observed at the county levels. In Kiambu County, 56 percent of the Shona community live below the national poverty line, compared to 25 percent of urban nationals. In Nairobi County, 49 percent of the Shona community live below the poverty line compared with 17 percent of Kenyans. These discrepancies lead to a higher incidence and severity of poverty among the Shona community than nationals as measured by the poverty gap (17 percent vs. 10 percent) and poverty severity (7 percent vs. 5 percent). The poverty gap is crucial for estimating the minimum amount needed to eliminate poverty. For the 1,616 Shona community individuals covered in this report, it would cost an estimated US$122 per person per year to raise incomes to meet the national urban poverty line. These poverty rates are likely to increase as a result of the socioeconomic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Shona community households tend to be larger in size and contain a greater share of dependents than urban Kenyan households, whose households are mostly headed by men. Compared to Kenyans living in urban areas, the Shona community has the same proportion of elders in their households, but a higher share of children than urban nationals (49 percent vs. 41 percent). While every Shona of working age is responsible for one dependent, two working-age Kenyans are responsible for one dependent (0.6 vs. 0.9, p<0.01). This higher incidence of dependents translates into a higher economic burden on the working-age Shona population. The Shona community and national households both report gender imbalances in who manages the household, as men from both groups are more likely to make daily decisions in the household than women. The Shona community has similar access to improved water and sanitation compared to Kenyan nationals, but lower access at the county level and Shona households more often live in crowded conditions. Shona community households have equal access to improved drinking water as urban nationals (88 percent), but more than 50 percent of the Shona community households report regular shortages. At the county level, the Shona community households in Nairobi and Kiambu have lower access to improved drinking water than Kenyans living in the same counties (85 percent vs. 98 percent in Nairobi; 90 percent vs. 97 percent in Kiambu). Access to improved sanitation among the Shona community is lower than that of urban nationals (83 percent vs. 87 percent) but higher for Shona households in Nairobi. Shona households are more likely to share toilet facilities with other households than nationals. The Shona community households tend to live in more crowded conditions than urban Kenyan households, with an average household size among the Shona of 4.9 persons vs. 3.3 persons in urban Kenya. About 9 in 10 Shona community households report access to the electricity grid, compared to 6 in 10 urban households in Kenya at the national level. It is likely that the access rate for urban Kenyan households at the national level is lower than that of Shona households because this group includes households in smaller cities far away from the capital. Thus, they may have lower access than the areas surrounding the capital of Nairobi, where the Shona community resides. When comparing access to Executive Summary 10183_Shona Report.indd 11  xi 12/14/20 2:56 PM