Kenmotsu geometry is a valuable part of contact geometry with nice applications in other fields such as theoretical physics. In this article, we study the statistical counterpart of a Kenmotsu manifold, that is, Kenmotsu statistical manifold with some related examples. We investigate some statistical curvature properties of Kenmotsu statistical manifolds. It has been shown that a Kenmotsu statistical manifold is not a Ricci-flat statistical manifold by constructing a counterexample. Finally, we prove a very well-known Chen-Ricci inequality for statistical submanifolds in Kenmotsu statistical manifolds of constant φ−sectional curvature by adopting optimization techniques on submanifolds. This article ends with some concluding remarks