# **3.3 Comparing spending across sectors**

In addition to compiling access and quality data, the household survey collected valuable information on household spending patterns across infrastructure services. Typically, this type of data is collected as part of sectoral studies that focus exclusively on household expenditures for a particular service. By offering comparison across sectors the data set provides a rare comparative insight into household spending by sector. It reports household expenditures on different services and consumption items simultaneously, allowing us to examine absolute expenditures – and their share of household budgets – in relative terms.

Table 3.2 provides data on monthly infrastructure spending for four sectors - electricity, water, garbage collection, and phone. For comparative purposes, data on cooking fuel costs and rents were added to the compilation. As before, this section will focus on data for all cities. Comparative analysis of spending by settlement type and household poverty is discussed in Annex 4.

**TABLE 3.2:  Monthly household spending on infrastructure services**

|**Infrastructure**<br>|**N**|**ALL**<br>|**By**<br>|**Settlement**<br>|**Type**<br>|**By**<br>|**Poverty L**<br>|**evel**<br>|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Monthly**<br>**Expenditure**<br>(Ksh/month)||**Urban**<br>**KSH**|**N**|**Formal**<br>**KSH**|**Informal**<br>**KSH**|**N**|**Non-**<br>**Poor**<br>**KSH**|**Poor**<br>**KSH**|
|**Electricity**|||||||||
|_Mean_|5,167|986|5,167|1,096|701a|5,101|1,240|635a|
|_Median_|5,167|500|5,167|500|400a|5,101|500|400a|
|**Water (piped)**|||||||||
|_Mean_|6,843|555|6,843|575|465|6,776|791|254a|
|_Median_|6,843|28|6,843|80|0a|6,776|200|0a|
|**Garbage Collection**|||||||||
|_Mean_|1,995|163|1,995|149|225|1,956|160|166|
|_Median_|1,995|100|1,995|100|50a|1,956|100|80a|
|**Phone**|||||||||
|_Mean_|10,858|1,501|10,858|1,685|1,131a|10,763|1,963|1,035a|
|_Median_|10,858|800|10,858|800|600a|10,763|1,000|600a|
|**Home Cooking Fuel**|||||||||
|_Mean_|13,602|1,234|13,602|1,286|1,129a|13,448|1,497|984a|
|_Median_|13,602|900|13,602|900|900|13,448|1,000|800a|
|**House Rent**|||||||||
|_Mean_|10,868|4,515|10,868|5,407|2,883a|10,753|6,194|2,871a|
|_Median_|10,868|1,800|10,868|2,000|1,400a|10,753|2,300|1,500a|

Notes:

1. Conversion using 84.5 Ksh equivalent to 1 USD  (WDI exchange rate for 2012)

2. Our data suggests that 40% of households have electricity and/or water charges included in their rent. These costs could not be disaggregated and are therefore not represented in above estimations.

The data reveal that phone service (predominantly mobile phones) is on average the most expensive infrastructure service on a monthly basis for households. Households allocate an estimated 1,501 Ksh/month (17.75 USD) to phone service. This is 20% more than the mean amount allocated to home cooking fuel (1,234 Ksh/month; 14.60 USD), and a third of the amount allocated to monthly house rent (4,515 Ksh/month; 53.41 USD). It is however 50% more than the next most expensive infrastructure service which is electricity at 986Ksh/month (11.66 USD).

The four other services are less expensive on a monthly basis. Piped water (shared or private) averages 555 Ksh/month (6.57 USD) which is significantly less than that spent on cooking fuels or rent, and about 13