Roofing in Kenya

Kenya runs from a hot, humid Indian Ocean coast through dry rangelands to cool, rainy highlands around Mount Kenya and the Lake Victoria basin. Its traditional roofs reflected that range: grass and papyrus thatch on round houses inland, cattle-dung plaster on the low houses of pastoralists such as the Maasai, palm-leaf makuti and coral-stone roofs on the Swahili coast. Today the country is roofed overwhelmingly in corrugated metal sheet, known in Swahili as mabati. In the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, about four in five conventional households lived under iron-sheet roofs.

Climate and hazards

Much of the country lies on or near the equator at altitude, with two rainy seasons in many areas and strong sun all year. Roofs must shed heavy tropical downpours, resist storm winds, and cope with high daytime heat gain under thin metal. The coast adds high humidity and salt-laden air, which speeds corrosion of steel and rots organic materials. In the arid north and east, rainfall is low and erratic, and roofs are also valued as rainwater-catchment surfaces.

Roofing history

Among the oldest standing roofs in the country are those of the Swahili coast, where trading towns built in stone from the late first millennium onward. At Shanga in the Lamu archipelago, stone building began in the early to mid-10th century. At Gedi, a town founded in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 15th and 16th, mosque roofs were carried on timber beams resting on square stone pillars. Lamu Old Town has been continuously inhabited for more than 700 years and is built of coral stone and mangrove timber, a combination of coral, lime and mangrove poles that UNESCO cites as typical of Swahili building.

Inland, houses were built of poles, mud and grass and were renewed regularly, so few old examples survive. Corrugated iron arrived in the colonial period and spread steadily after independence in 1963 as a sign of a permanent, modern house. By 2019 grass and twigs covered only about 5% of households.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Swahili coral-stone house (Lamu, Mombasa, the northern coast): walls of uncoursed coral blocks in lime mortar; roofs and upper floors of thick coral laid over timber joists about 30 cm (12 in) apart. Because mangrove poles limit the span, rooms are often only about 3 m (10 ft) wide. A small thatched shelter over the rooftop or courtyard cooking area (kidara cha meko) kept smoke away from fine lime plaster. Lime was made by burning coral.
• Makuti: thatch of sun-dried coconut palm leaves, widely used along the East African coast on houses, outbuildings and, increasingly, beach hotels, where it is treated as a mark of local character and prestige.
• Maasai enkaji: a low, loaf-shaped house of poles and woven sticks, built and maintained by women, with a roof layered in grass and cow dung or a dung and mud mix that is re-plastered against wet-season wear. See Maasai enkaji.
• Lake basin houses: around Lake Victoria, Luo builders used papyrus leaves for thatch.

Roofing today

The 2019 census recorded the dominant roofing material of each household's main dwelling unit (KNBS Volume IV, Table 2.12, published by county and sub-county). Nationally:

Dominant roofing material	Share of conventional households
Iron sheets	80.3%
Concrete and cement	8.2%
Grass and twigs	5.1%
All other materials combined	about 6.4%

Concrete roofs are typical of urban apartment blocks and commercial buildings. Middle- and upper-income houses use clay and concrete tiles and stone-coated or tile-profile steel. On the coast, makuti remains in use on resorts and some homes. Among the Maasai, timber-framed roofs covered with metal sheets are replacing dung roofs, though the fenced homestead layout survives.

Codes, standards and regulation

Kenya's National Building Code 2024 was published on 1 March 2024 as Legal Notice No. 47 and formally launched by the National Construction Authority (NCA) on 17 July 2024. It repealed the Local Government (Adoptive By-Laws) (Building) Order of 1968, which had served as the building code for 56 years. The NCA announced a one-year adjustment period with training for the industry, and it operates mobile materials-testing laboratories to support quality checks on construction materials.

Industry

Kenya has a large domestic sheet-rolling industry. A major producer is Mabati Rolling Mills, part of Safal Group, which traces its history to 1962 and makes metallic-coated steel, roofing sheets and tiles and light steel trusses. Smaller roll-forming businesses and hardware dealers supply sheets of varying gauge and coating mass, which buyers compare because both govern corrosion life.

Notable roofs

• Lamu Old Town (UNESCO World Heritage): coral-stone houses with coral roofs on mangrove joists.
• Gedi ruins: stone mosques and houses of a 12th to 16th century Swahili town.
• Makuti-roofed beach hotels on the Kenyan coast, which keep palm-leaf thatch in use at large scale.

Local roofing terms

• mabati (Swahili): metal roofing sheets.
• makuti (Swahili): coconut palm-leaf thatch.
• kidara cha meko (Swahili): thatched cooking shelter in a Lamu house.
• enkaji (Maa): a Maasai house; enkang or ekang: the fenced family homestead.

Sources and gaps

Census shares are the national figures from the 2019 census as reported by Africa Check from KNBS tables. Shares for individual minor materials (tiles, makuti, asbestos and others) were not given separately. No account of the history of "mabati women's groups" (self-help groups that saved to buy roofing sheets) was found in published sources.