Why nearly half of Kenyan women are obese

Public Health PS Mary Muthoni at a past press conference in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

Nearly half of young and middle-aged women in Kenya are overweight, Public Health Principal Secretary (PS) Mary Muthoni has said. 

Ms Muthoni, who spoke during a sensitization programme hosted by the vernacular radio station, attributed the problem to poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle.

"Nearly half of our women, about 45 per cent, are overweight and obese," she said.

The PS said it was regrettable that the women in that age group were fat, because it compromised their productivity in economic growth activities.

"Between the ages of 20 to 49 are overweight. These are women who should be productive," said the PS, even as she assured government had taken measures to address the matter to curb diseases.

Muthoni said as part of remedial measures, the ministry had designed the Kenya Nutrients Profile Model for Public Health, which seeks to ensure manufacturers of food items produce healthy foods.

"Which is basically a tool that is developed to classify and regulate foods and beverages based on their nutrient content, especially to address public health concerns such as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like obesity and other diet-related illnesses," she said.

She stated that the NCDs accounted for 39 per cent of all deaths in the country.

She said; "Matters of nutrition are very important. People should consume healthy foods, because many diseases are caused by a poor diet," she said, and also urged people to go for screening for early detection and treatment.

Muthoni said fewer women were breastfeeding their children exclusively on milk from age 0 to six months.

"Exclusive breastfeeding, which demands that women should breast-feed the child for six months, has dropped from 61 to 60 per cent. It shows many women have become very busy to breast-feed their children."

In contrast, Muthoni said bottle-milk feeding had increased.

She said, " Bottle-feeding increased from 22 per cent to 34 per cent. We see a situation where children are not growing and developing well, because they were neglected between 0-6 months." 
She dismissed the widely held belief that breastfeeding makes women look older than they actually are, and urged them to breastfeed their babies per regulations.

"Breastfeeding a baby does not make one age faster. It won't make a difference. We are encouraging them, especially teen mothers, to breast-feed," she said, noting that the number of teen mothers in Meru had become a major health and education concern.