Thanks to rising smartphone adoption and increasingly affordable connectivity, podcasts have seen significant growth in Kenya and are playing an increasingly important role in the lives of many people.

Podcasts have laid bare candid conversations and exposed fascinating stories and can be said to have changed the flavour of everyday life.

The passion for the podcasting medium exhibited by Kenyan creatives has also contributed to its success. This is the case not just in Kenya, but across Africa and the world in general where podcasts have become constant companions.

Spotify, the global audio streaming company, has played a crucial role in this surge: “Spotify’s unwavering support for the local podcasting community is deeply rooted in our appreciation for the richness and diversity of voices and stories that it brings to the forefront,” says Ncebakazi Manzi, Spotify’s Podcast Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa.

This year has seen a massive growth in the popularity of Kenyan podcasts on Spotify. Here are just some of the trends that Spotify Wrapped year-end roundup reveals about the Kenyan listenership’s favorites.
Top of the streamed list is So This is Love which is a podcast about love, the loss of love, heartbreak and the meeting of self. Julia Gaitho invites different guests to share their experiences in past relationships, either anonymously or with their real identities. One of Spotify’s Breakout Creators of 2023, her standout episodes are Roxy & the Doctor and Roland & Debrah.

Kenya’s second most listened-to podcast is The Messy Inbetween, an award winning podcast hosted by Murugi Munyi and Lydia K.M who say that theirs is a podcast about “life as it is. Messy. In love, work, money, relationships, friendships and everything in between.” Their standout episode, according to Spotify is ‘I knew sex was great when…’

 It’s Related, I Promise  which is described as “a sonic escape into the world of three diverse Kenyan women” is the third most streamed podcast in Kenya, and also most exported. Julia Gaitho and Sharon Machira are young professionals, braving the urban landscape of Kenya’s capital city and growing their friendship along the way, and they have a rotating host. Spotify has named them as one of the Breakout Creators of 2023, with their standout episodes being ‘What would your ex say about you’ and ‘Things we like & don’t like about Gen Z’.

The Sandwich Podcast, hosted by four friends, are in the top 10 most streamed podcasts in Kenya. They  are not only the Breakout Creators of 2023, they also have two episodes in the Standout Episodes category, as selected by Spotify: #111 BFFR featuring Kibanja and #110 Dem Days.

Also in the most exported podcasts is  The Mics Are Open, a slightly skewed look at life through the lens of a group of radio presenters in Nairobi, also considered part of the Breakout Creators of 2023 by Spotify. 

The97sPodcast, just as the name suggests, are a three men army, who are 97s kid, and are the eighth most streamed podcast in Kenya. Trevor, Frank and Dante discuss their life experiences in a humorous way, also landing them on Spotify’s Breakout Creators of 2023, with ‘Do you talk during sex’ and ‘What is wrong with visitors’ as their two Standout episodes of 2023.

The final podcast with a  Standout Episodes of 2023 is On Purpose with Jay Shetty’s episode on ‘Trevor Noah ON: How to turn bad experiences into healing’. 

Kenyan podcasters are not resting on their laurels, that’s why there are a lot more Breakout Creators of 2023 including Ben Cyco and Wanjiru Njiru’s The Joyride, Maxine Wabosha’s A Letter to My Younger Self where she invites her guests to write letters to their younger selves, Mantalk by Eli Mwenda and Oscar Koome, Unspoken Podcast and Mic Cheque.