Garissa County is an administrative county in Kenya. It is located in Eastern Kenya bordering Somalia to the East, Wajir County and Isiolo County to the North, Tana River County to the West and Lamu County to the South. Its capital and largest urban area is Garissa.

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Garissa County
County
Flag Coat of arms
Location in Kenya
Coordinates: 0°27′25″S 39°39′30″E
Country	Kenya
Formed	4 March 2013
Capital	Garissa
Government
• Governor	Nathif Jama Adam
• Deputy Governor	Abdi Dagane Muhumed
• Senator	Abdul Mohammed Haji
• County woman representative	Amina Udgoon Siyad
Area
• Total	44,753 km2 (17,279 sq mi)
Elevation	1,138 m (3,734 ft)
Population  (2019)
• Total	1,513,530
• Density	34/km2 (88/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+3 (EAT)
Website	www.garissa.go.ke

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The county was created by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as a new unit of the devolved government. Prior to the 2010 constitution, Garissa County was part of the North Eastern Province which was one of the former provinces of Kenya. The North Eastern Province was carved out of the then Northern Frontier District (NFD) prior to independence.

The county had a population of 841,353 at the 2019 Census, and a land area of about 44,753 km² (17,279 sq mi).^[1] The district is primarily inhabited by the Absame, Marehan, and Facaye Sade clans. After the Shifta War primarily fought by the Marehan who were given the title Shifta, the tribe were forced to either migrate to Jubaland or claim neighboring clans and thus a huge contingent can now be found in the Absame living as far as the west of the county.

Garissa county has a total population of 841,353 persons of which 458,975 are males, 382,344 females and 34 intersex person. There is a total of 141,394 household with an average size of 5.9 persons per house hold. It has a population density of 19 persons per square kilometre.^[15]

Distribution of Population, Land Area and Population Density by Sub-County

Source^[1]

The county has 347 ECD centres, 224 primary schools, 41 secondary schools, 2 teachers training colleges and 2 public universities.

39.7 per cent of the population can read and write and 57.9 cannot read and write. There is an average of 8.2 per cent literacy level and 74 per cent are illiterate.^[17]

Source ^[18]

There are a total of 111 health facilities distributes across the county, one level 5, 14 other hospitals, 29 health centres and 67 dispensaries.^[19]

Source^[17]

HIV/ADS is at the 1 percentage as compared to the national prevalent rate of 5.6 percentage.^[19]

A total of 2,700.6 km is classified as road network coverage comprising 1,637.84 km under county government and 1,062.76 km under national government. Of the total road network 420 km is covered by gravelled surface, 2,245.1 km earth surface and .5 km of bitumen surface.^[17]

There are 6 postal services with 2,600 installed letter boxes, 2,496 rented letter boxes 104 vacant letter boxes.^[20]

The main crops grown are maize, greengrams, sorghum, rice, cowpeas, bananas, mangoes, pawpaw, water melon, tomatoes, capsicum and onions. Farmers have an average size of 1.5 hectares for small scale and 20 hectares for large scale. cattle (boran), goats (galla), sheep (black headed Persian) and camel (dromedary one humped) are kept as the main livestock for producing key products of meat, milk, hides and skins.^[20][19]

Source: USAid Kenya

• Garissa
• Garissa District
• North Eastern Province (Kenya)
• Northern Frontier District
• Mandera County
• Isiolo County
• Lamu County
• Wajir County
• Counties of Kenya
• Sub-Counties of Kenya
• Garissa Solar Power Station
• List of counties of Kenya by GDP
• Garissa massacre
• Garissa University College attack
• Lamu–Garissa–Isiolo Road
• Garissa–Nuno–Modogashe–Wajir Road
• Mombasa–Garissa Road
• Garissa Airport