In recent years, community’s perceptions and acceptance of edible insects as novel foods has gained momentum worldwide. Despite the importance of entomophagy in Kenya, little information exists on knowledge, perceptions and practices of edible insects among different communities. This study seeks to address this information gap by conducting surveys on edible insects in Kenya. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 161 respondents in western, eastern, central and coastal Kenya. The studies revealed that major insect groups consumed in Kenya include termites (88%), grasshoppers (28%), saturniids (8.3%), crickets (6.8%), compost grubs (3%) and lake flies (1.5%). However, this varied with regions. For instance, saturniids caterpillars such as Cirina forda, Bunaea alcinoe and Gonimbrasia zambesina were consumed mainly by the Giriama community in Kilifi, Coastal Kenya. The Giriamas frequently consumed saturniids to complement their diet, rather than a tactic for survival. Insect consumption was significantly affected by age, occupation and gender but not by region or educational level. Children (92.3%) and women (98.6%) were prominently involved in wild harvesting and sale of edible insects. The most common edible insects observed in local markets included termites in western and saturniids in coastal Kenya. Although 98.8% of the respondents were familiar with edible saturniids, only 67.1% were willing consumers. While 73% of the respondents were willing to rear saturniids primarily for income, they cited lack of ready markets as one of the major challenges. There is an urgent need to create awareness and promote processing of these insects into more palatable forms that can be marketed and consumed as an alternative for alleviating food insecurity and malnutrition in the region.

近年来，社区对食用昆虫作为新型食品的认识和接受度在世界范围内得到了增长。尽管在肯尼亚昆虫食性很重要，但是关于不同社区之间食用昆虫的知识，认识和做法的信息很少。这项研究旨在通过对肯尼亚的食用昆虫进行调查来解决这一信息鸿沟。使用半结构化问卷从肯尼亚西部，东部，中部和沿海地区的161名受访者中收集信息。研究表明，肯尼亚食用的主要昆虫种类包括白蚁（88％），蚱（（28％），杜鹃花（8.3％），（6.8％），comp（3％）和湖蝇（1.5％）。但是，这随地区而异。例如，饱和的毛毛虫，例如Cirina forda，Bunaea alcinoe和冈比亚小猿桑比切纳主要由肯尼亚沿海基利菲的Giriama社区消费。Giriamas经常食用饱和肉来补充饮食，而不是生存策略。昆虫的消费受年龄，职业和性别的影响很大，但不受地区或教育水平的影响。儿童（92.3％）和妇女（98​​.6％）主要参与野外收获和食用昆虫的销售。在当地市场上观察到的最常见的食用昆虫包括西部的白蚁和肯尼亚沿海的准祖先。尽管98.8％的受访者熟悉可食用的saturniids，但只有67.1％的消费者愿意。尽管73％的受访者愿意主要为了收入而增加养生之道，但他们认为缺乏现成的市场是主要挑战之一。