Africa is Kenya's main export destination as it accounted for 41.7 percent of total exports in 2015, official data released on Saturday showed.

The data released by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) said that exports to Africa increased marginally from 2.41 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to 2.42 billion dollars last year.

Kenya's total exports in 2015 hit 5.8 billion dollars, up from 5.4 billion in the previous year.

Within Africa, Uganda maintained as the leading exporting destination for Kenyan goods as it imported goods worth 685 million dollars in 2015, up from 607 million dollars in the previous year.

Europe was the second leading destination of exports as it imported goods worth 1.5 billion dollars in 2015, up from 1.4 billion dollars in 2014.

Within the Europe, the three major export destinations were Netherlands, Britain and Germany due to their large imports of Kenyan horticultural and other agricultural products.

Exports to Asia in the period under review rose to 1.3 billion dollars, representing a 31 percent growth from the previous year.

Pakistan, which is a major tea importer from Kenya, was the leading export destination as it purchased goods worth 290 million dollars.

The KNBS said that tea was the leading export commodity as it earned Kenya 1.2 billion dollars in 2015, 31 percent increase from the previous year.

Other leading export commodities included horticulture, apparel and clothing accessories, coffee and iron products.