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.
Meanwhile, Medical Services Minister Anyang’ Nyong’o has said a Bill seeking to provide medical services to all Kenyans will soon be tabled before Parliament.
Prof Nyong’o said the policy guidelines and a Cabinet memorandum had been passed and proposes to offer citizens free medical health care including reproductive health.
“The Bill of Rights requires that the Government provides medical services to all Kenyans,” said Nyong’o.
Speaking during celebrations to mark World Population Day at Embakasi, Nairobi, on Wednesday, the minister noted that about 8,000 women die every year because of pregnancy related complications.
According to the Demographic Health Survey 2008/09, maternal deaths in Kenya remain high at 488 per 100,000. He said each pregnancy increases a woman’s chance of dying from complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
The minister said there has been slow improvement in reproductive health services like poor access to skilled attendance, lack of community involvement, unmet needs for family planning and delays in seeking appropriate medical care.
He disclosed that the Government has developed a strategy to enhance the reproductive health status of all Kenyans by increasing equitable access to reproductive health services.
