Planning families for a better future for Kenya

Kitui County is my home. I was born and grew up here and this is where my wife and I have raised our three children. As governor, my top priority is ensuring that each of Kitui's million residents has a healthy and productive life.

On Friday we took an important step in this direction by launching a five-year strategy that prioritises family planning as an essential component of our county's development. Critically, we have also committed to funding this strategy. This year, Kitui County has allocated Sh16 million in our budget specifically for family planning – a historic first. The Kitui County Family Planning Costed Implementation Plan is an achievement that is worth celebrating.

As a country, Kenya has long recognised the crucial role family planning plays in improving the health and wellbeing of its citizens. The right of every woman to access family planning is enshrined in Kenya's constitution. Now it's up to counties to ensure this right is upheld – and there's good reason to do so. Nearly 10 per cent more women and couples in Kenya are using modern contraceptives today than they were five years ago. The number of infant deaths and under-five deaths have decreased significantly during that same time period. Increased access to contraceptives undoubtedly played a key role in these reductions – because when women are able to time and space their pregnancies, mothers and their children are healthier.

Family planning also makes economic sense. It allows more young girls to stay in school and use their education to enter the workforce. These advantages, and others, have been repeatedly reinforced by advocates, particularly by our partners at Kyeni Foundation and Jhpiego, who have impressed upon me and the Kitui County government the importance of funding family planning.

The launch of this costed implementation plan for family planning is not only a big step forward for Kitui, but it also demonstrates the opportunity that county governments like ours have to develop strategies that meet our specific needs. We have the ability, and the constitutional imperative, to determine our own priorities and allocate funding within our own budgets to support them. As such, we have a great responsibility to make and fund policies that positively impact our citizens. As a steward of Kitui County's government, I must be held accountable for how those decisions are made. While the journey will not be the same for all counties, there are several important steps to note that helped us get to where we are today. First, our partners undertook a landscaping project to identify the family planning needs in our community and highlight the importance of increasing access to services. Second, they used these findings to build support from key decision-makers, including Ruth Isika, County Minister for Health, and other members of the county health management team.

Once everyone was on board, our county health management team diligently led the drafting process to ensure that we could turn our ideas into something actionable. Finally, my executive team made a proposal to the County Assembly to fund our strategy, which it approved in full in June. This success – going from no specific plan, to developing a blueprint, to funding a concrete strategy – demonstrates the value of partnering with civil society to build consensus and best serve the needs of our citizens. Kitui County is not alone in prioritising family planning as part of its budgeting process – to date, there are six other counties that have also developed costed implementation plans, including Nyeri, Kakamega, Siaya, Tharaka Nithi, Homa Bay and Busia.

As a governor, I fully understand that there are many pressing priorities that come across our desks every day. But, to me, investing in family planning is a clear win, both to improve health and to achieve economic gains.