Experts want the Government to come up with a policy to limit the number of children per family.
Kenya Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (URHI) has warned that Kenyans will continue to wallow in poverty if the population continues growing at the current rate.
“We recommend two children per family,” said project director Nelson Keyonzo during the World Population Day, on Wednesday.
“If economic growth rate is at four per cent and population growth is at three per cent, then what the country is producing will be all consumed and unless we reduce the population growth, then the country cannot achieve Vision 2030,” he added.
Poor distribution
He said high population growth is caused by lack of access to contraceptives needed to plan pregnancies.
An average Kenyan woman gives birth to five children, with about a million pregnancies every year in Kenya being unplanned. Nearly one in every four women aged between 15-19 already has a child.
The Ministry of Planning recently said it was reviving family planning campaign after its funding was diverted in early 1990 to HIV and Aids pandemic.
“The main problem is that women cannot access the kind of contraceptives they want and only use what they get because they have no options,” said Dr Janet Omyonga, Deputy Director at URHI.
She said the most popular contraceptive, injectable, lasts only three months while long-term methods would be preferred.
Keyonzo said contraceptives are readily available at Kenya Medical Supplies Agency but distribution to health facilities remains a challenge.
They regretted that contraceptives have to be supplied to Ministry of Health district store but no budget is set for the drugs to be delivered to public and private facilities for women to freely access them.
