Source status and limitations

library(knbsdata)

This page states plainly what this release can and cannot do, and why. It is worth reading before relying on the package for anything that matters.

Registered sources

knbs_sources()
#> # A tibble: 9 × 8
#>   source_id         source_name  source_type operations stability authentication
#>   <chr>             <chr>        <chr>       <list>     <chr>     <chr>         
#> 1 kenada            Kenya Natio… survey_cat… <chr [4]>  experime… none          
#> 2 finaccess         FinAccess H… static_fil… <chr [1]>  experime… none          
#> 3 knbs_publications KNBS Public… publicatio… <chr [3]>  experime… none          
#> 4 knbs_indicators   KNBS Census… indicator_… <chr [4]>  experime… none          
#> 5 knbs_cpi          KNBS CPI Ex… indicator_… <chr [4]>  experime… none          
#> 6 knbs_opendata     KNBS Data P… indicator_… <chr [3]>  experime… none          
#> 7 opendataforafrica Kenya Open … indicator_… <chr [3]>  experime… none          
#> 8 dhs_program       The DHS Pro… indicator_… <chr [3]>  experime… none          
#> 9 fake_source       Offline tes… fake        <chr [6]>  discovery none          
#> # ℹ 2 more variables: last_verified <date>, base_url <chr>
knbs_status()
#> # A tibble: 9 × 7
#>   source_id    operation status http_status response_time_ms checked_at         
#>   <chr>        <chr>     <chr>        <int>            <dbl> <dttm>             
#> 1 kenada       search_s… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 2 finaccess    download… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 3 knbs_public… search_p… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 4 knbs_indica… list_ind… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 5 knbs_cpi     list_ind… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 6 knbs_openda… list_ind… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 7 opendatafor… list_ind… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 8 dhs_program  list_ind… not_c…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> 9 fake_source  search_s… unver…          NA               NA 2026-10-21 20:49:55
#> # ℹ 1 more variable: message <chr>

knbs_status(live = TRUE) contacts the verified sources. It never contacts a source at stability discovery, because those have placeholder endpoints and there is nothing to call.

What each stability level means

Level Meaning
discovery The endpoint has not been verified. Unusable, and never contacted.
experimental Verified and tested, but not documented by its publisher, so it could change without notice.
beta Verified, documented and monitored over time.
stable A schema contract the package expects to keep.
deprecated Scheduled for removal.

Nothing in this release is above experimental.

What works

The survey catalogue, via the Kenya National Data Archive: knbs_search_surveys(), knbs_survey_metadata(), knbs_variables() and knbs_survey_files(). The archive exposes a JSON API that needs no credentials for metadata. 129 studies covering 1969–2022 were catalogued at the time of the audit.

Open survey microdata, via the FinAccess portal (finaccess.knbs.or.ke): knbs_finaccess_files(), knbs_download_finaccess() and knbs_read_microdata(). The Central Bank of Kenya, KNBS and FSD Kenya publish the anonymised, weighted microdata of the FinAccess household surveys — 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016, 2021 and 2024 — and of two MSE Tracker Survey waves for anyone to download, with questionnaires, manuals and reports. The portal is a web page linking Google Drive files, so the package keeps its own catalogue of them, and holds every download to it: served name and size before the transfer, size and SHA-256 after. Three properties to keep in mind:

  • The portal states no licence. FSD Kenya’s terms for the 2013 survey restrict the data to research and forbid redistribution without written agreement; assume nothing wider. The terms travel in each file’s sidecar and metadata, and no file is bundled with the package.
  • Some portal labels are wrong, and the catalogue records what each link actually serves: the MSE Tracker Wave II formats are swapped, and the 2006 and 2009 “Questionnaire” archives hold the survey data too.
  • The 2013 survey’s Stata copy sits behind a registration form on Harvard Dataverse. It is listed, never fetched; its SPSS copy is open.

Publications, via the KNBS website’s media library: knbs_publications() and knbs_download_publication(). The site’s WordPress REST API lists roughly 1,600 documents — statistical releases, survey reports, Economic Survey chapters and workbooks — with direct, ungated file URLs. Downloads are verified, checksummed and given a provenance sidecar.

Two properties of this source to keep in mind:

  • release_date is the date a file reached the website, not the publication’s reference period. The year column is read from the title, and is NA when the title names none.
  • The media library also holds speeches, launch remarks and forms. What counts as a publication is your query, not a curated list.

Census tables, via the KNBS census data service (data.knbs.or.ke): knbs_indicators() and knbs_get_indicator(). Thirty-two tables from the 2019 Population and Housing Census as JSON-stat, under an explicit CC BY 4.0 statement, with geography down to sub-county and leading zeros intact. See vignette("census-indicators").

One property of this source to keep in mind: its API host is HTTP-only — no TLS listener exists — so traffic to it is unencrypted in transit. It carries public census aggregates and no credentials, and the registry records the exception explicitly rather than hiding it.

The economy, via the KNBS Data Portal (opendata.knbs.or.ke): 323 SDMX dataflows across five statistical domains — GDP by activity and expenditure, GFCF, GNI, production accounts, CPI by division and region, balance of payments, trade, money and banking, county government finance, employment, agriculture, tourism, health and justice. knbs_indicators() lists them (source_id "knbs_opendata") and knbs_get_indicator() fetches one by its SDMX id, for example "DF_NAT_GDPCP". Three properties to keep in mind: the portal states no licence; its geography codes are SDMX area codes, not census territories (never join them against knbs_geographies()); and single-category dimensions fold into knbs_metadata() notes rather than arriving as constant columns.

Consumer prices, via the KNBS CPI Explorer (cpiexplorer.knbs.or.ke): knbs_get_indicator("CPI_ALL_ITEMS"), "CPI_INFLATION_YOY" and "CPI_INFLATION_MOM" — monthly from January 2009, nationally and by the CPI collection strata (the Nairobi income bands, Nairobi Combined, Rest of Urban) — plus knbs_retail_prices(), the monthly national average retail prices of the 22 CPI basket commodities. See vignette("census-indicators").

Three properties of this source to keep in mind, all carried in knbs_metadata() on every result:

  • The portal states no licence, unlike the census service’s CC BY 4.0 footer, and does not state the index base period.
  • Its regions are collection strata, not census territories. Their codes must never be joined against knbs_geographies().
  • Six listed regions — the former provinces — carry no data in any period. Asking for them returns zero rows, because that is the source’s answer.

Gross County Product and the republished datasets, via Kenya Open Data for Africa (kenya.opendataforafrica.org): 202 datasets — 169 sourced from KNBS, the rest from the Central Bank of Kenya, ministries and agencies — including the one thing no first-party portal serves as data: Gross County Product (knbs_get_indicator("jhbzkjc") — GVA shares plus constant- and current-price GCP for all 47 counties, 2013–2020). knbs_indicators() lists them (source_id "opendataforafrica").

This source is different in kind from the others, and its honesty caveats are correspondingly heavier:

  • It is a republisher, not the publisher. The portal is operated on the Knoema data platform and is listed on KNBS’s own portals page; every result’s knbs_metadata() names the portal and points at the original producer. Where a first-party portal serves the same data, prefer the first-party portal.
  • Its vintage can lag the PDFs. The GCP dataset is the 2021 edition; KNBS has since published newer GCP years as PDF reports only. The metadata carries the portal’s own publication and update dates so the lag is visible, not hidden.
  • Licence labels vary by dataset and are carried verbatim — most KNBS-sourced datasets say “Public Domain”; datasets without a label say “Not stated by the source”.
  • Its geography codes are the portal’s own region codes (KE, KE-700-BA, …), not census territories; never join them against knbs_geographies().
  • A dataset may mix frequencies — annual, quarterly and monthly series side by side under one id. Annual periods are integer years and sub-annual ones are Dates, which cannot share a column, so a mixed dataset asks you to choose (frequency = "annual") rather than picking one silently.
  • Its edge sometimes challenges automated clients. The package identifies itself transparently and speaks plain HTTP/1.1, which the portal serves; if a challenge page comes back anyway, that is an access gate and you get knbs_error_access_restricted — the package never solves or retries a challenge. Trying again later usually suffices.

Health and demography, via the DHS Program’s Indicator Data API (api.dhsprogram.com): the indicators of the Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys (1989–2022), which KNBS implements, and of the 2015 and 2020 Malaria Indicator Surveys — 4,115 of them, listed by knbs_indicators() with source_id "dhs_program" and fetched by id, for example knbs_get_indicator("CN_NUTS_C_HA2") (children stunted). Each comes for every survey that measured it, by background characteristic, by the former provinces, and from 2014 by county. KNBS’s own KDHS portal is a dashboard with no data API, and answered with an error when checked. Properties to keep in mind:

  • County rows carry census codes; province and malaria-zone rows carry none, since no census code exists for them.
  • Several values can describe one group. Where the DHS Program reports more than one reference period, every value is kept and preferred marks the one it prefers.
  • A few ids are reused. The API lists 27 indicator ids twice; where one serves two different values for the same survey and group, the package refuses it with knbs_error_validation_failed rather than choose.
  • The terms ask for a citation, which knbs_cite() gives in the form the API specifies. No licence is stated.
  • Its robots file bars /rest/dhs/, the API itself, to every client, while its documentation invites applications to use it. The package reads the rule as addressed to crawlers: it asks only for what you request, one indicator at a time, under its own name, throttled and cached, and never walks the API.

Statistical Abstract tables, via the KNBS website’s chapter workbooks: knbs_abstract_tables() and knbs_abstract_table(). 48 tables of the 2025 edition, across 13 chapters — the whole National Accounts chapter and 33 tables from twelve more — extract into tidy observations by hand-verified recipes. Extraction is deliberately strict: layout anchors, section labels and pinned reference values are re-checked on every read, and a workbook that has drifted is refused with a classed error rather than re-interpreted. Tables not yet curated remain verified downloads (knbs_download_publication()). See vignette("statistical-abstract").

What does not, and why

The archive’s microdata cannot be downloaded

The archive requires an account for every download. knbs_download_microdata() explains the official access process and stops. The package does not automate sign-in, licence acceptance or approval workflows. Microdata are downloaded only where the producers publish them for anyone, as the FinAccess surveys are.

This is worth understanding rather than working around: access_type of public_use describes the archive’s terms — public-use files exist — not whether a program may fetch them.

Documentation files are not listed

Questionnaires, reports and technical documents have no machine-readable listing at the archive. Reaching them would mean parsing a web page, which this package does not do. The catalogue_url column from knbs_search_surveys() opens the study on the archive’s own site, where they are linked.

The newest Gross County Product years are still documents

GCP is data now — but only the 2021 edition (2013–2020), through the Open Data for Africa republisher above; no first-party KNBS portal serves it as data (checked exhaustively). The editions published since extend the series past 2020 as PDF reports only, reachable through knbs_publications("gross county product"). If the newest county figures matter, read the PDF; the metadata on the data version dates its vintage precisely so the gap is never invisible.

Geography: one vintage, no boundaries, no classifications

knbs_geographies() serves the 2019 census frame — Kenya, 47 counties, sub-counties, with names and parent codes, read from the census service’s own Territory dimension. What it does not serve, because nothing has been verified: other vintages, crosswalks between coding systems, boundary geometries (knbs_boundaries() does not exist) and statistical classifications.

Variable documentation is uneven

Some studies are catalogued with no variable metadata at all, including the most recent one at the time of the audit. knbs_variables() returns zero rows for those. That is the archive’s answer, not a failure.

How you will know if something changes

The package checks the shape of every response, not just its status code. The archive answers unknown paths with 200 and a study record rather than a 404, so a renamed endpoint would otherwise deliver the wrong object convincingly. When a payload lacks the fields its operation requires, you get knbs_error_schema_changed and a note that the endpoint has probably moved.

A scheduled job runs knbs_status(live = TRUE) weekly against the verified sources.

Reporting a change

If a source has moved, changed shape or changed its access rules, please open a data source change issue. Public URLs only — never session-bound URLs, tokens or cookies.

Disclaimer

knbsdata is an independent open-source project. It is not an official KNBS product unless and until KNBS formally adopts or endorses it. Consult the original KNBS source for authoritative definitions, revisions, access conditions and official releases.