Small, happy family = Rosy future

By NJOKI KARUOYA

The National Leaders Conference on Population and Development being held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre comes to a close today after an intensive three days of discussions, deliberations and agenda setting.

It was organised by the Ministry of Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 through its National Coordinating Agency on Population and Development and development partners including UNFPA, USAID, FHI, EU, DSW, PRB, IED, PPFA and PSI among others.

The conference, which was officially launched by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka on Monday and attended by more than 1,000 delegates from all over the country and beyond (mostly representatives from Government departments and agencies, international donors and non-governmental organisations), tackled concerns raised by Kenya’s population explosion that was ascertained through the published results of last years census exercise.

Working population

According to the statistics, more than 24.5 million Kenyans are aged below 25 years.

What this generally means is that more than half of this country’s population, which stands at about 39 million, is dependent on Government and on the working population.

Obviously, such a huge population is putting a strain on education, health, food security, employment opportunities, security, housing, the environment and transport among their other needs.

It is, therefore, not surprising that whatever the Government does to increase budget allocations in these areas, it is never enough because this huge population of ‘dependables’ just keeps growing and demanding more medicine, more food, more teachers, more...

On the home front, the parents and guardians of these children and youth struggle on a daily basis to support them.

With the increasing population growth of the young, it means more of them will miss job opportunities as they are not enough to accommodate them considering they are not growing at the same rate, hence they continue to rely on the support of their parents and guardians.

To make matters worse, these young ‘dependables’, for whatever reason, be it ignorance, sense of adventure, peer pressure or sheer stupidity, are engaging in irresponsible sexual behaviour — and at a very early age — putting many of them at risk of not only being infected with sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), but of getting pregnant.

Result: children giving birth to children and increasing the youth bulge. If we don’t stem this tide as a country, we will explode, as the Vice-President warned in his speech.

Family planning

One of the biggest challenges that Government, development partners and non-governmental organisations are facing today is the lack of family planning methods, such that even when women go to hospitals or health centres in search of the commodities, they don’t get them. Medical professionals in those health centres can do nothing but watch them come and go, empty handed, because the commodities are finished and no new supplies have been delivered.

This is a typical case of huge demand, no supply, and it is happening all over the country, including urban centres where populations are larger, as is the demand for sex, irrespective of whether the family planning methods are available or not.

Result: higher population growth. The census statistics do go on to indicate that the fertility rate of Kenya’s women is about 4.6 — which means that on average, majority of women who are mothers have either four or five children.

On my salary, it would take a miracle, or a multitude of side hustles, to adequately take care of this number of children. Sadly, most women who have this number of children don’t earn half of what I do, and many are poor and struggling, but because they so love their children, they bend backwards to provide for their needs, even if it means sacrificing everything they’ve got, including their dignity.

Huge population

Result: a huge population of this country (18 millions Kenyans) living in poverty and destitution.

If we don’t stop and think about what these figures mean for us as a nation and begin to take measures to slow down the rate of population growth, we shall grow to about 72 million people by 2030, and that magical vision we all crave for will remain just that — a dream, never to become reality as we erode all the economic and developmental gains we have made thus far.