Nairobi, July 28 -- About 17.6 percent of employees in top firms are casual workers, as firms increasingly turn to contract staff to control costs.

Official statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) show that individuals engaged in casual employment grew from 416,900 in 2020 to 582,900 in 2025, accounting for 17.6 percent of the 3.32 million formal sector workers.

This comes at a time when Kenya's soft economy has made firms reluctant to step up hiring and increase wages to cover inflation.

The trend of firms slowing down on permanent hires has seen the share of casual workers in formal office and factory jobs rise gradually from 15.2 percent in 2020 to 17.6 percent last year.

A casual worker, according to the Emp...