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BY GATONYE GATHURA
Nairobi, Kenya: Elgeyo Marakwet, Narok and Tharaka are the safest counties in Kenya for women to give birth. A pregnancy in Mandera is just like a death sentence.
While it is generally risky to give birth in Kenya, doing it in Mandera is almost a national shame with 3,795 out of 100,000 expectant women dying annually.
In Elgeyo Marakwet, only 187 die in similar circumstances. Tharaka and Narok counties each lose 191 women annually.
A report released yesterday by the Economic Secretary Ministry of Devolution and Planning Stephen Wainaina on behalf of the Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru, shows the case of maternal deaths in Mandera is very high.
The rates in Mandera are more than double those in Wajir and Turkana the third and fourth most unsafe places to get pregnant respectively.
But it is difficult to blame Mandera, with the report indicating that for periods of up to a year, most of the health facilities in the county are closed for lack of personnel.
The report, which is part of a raft of policy documents analysing the 2009 national census, indicates that 13 out of 47 counties carry the heaviest burden in maternal deaths with rates higher than the national average of 495 deaths.
The report also shows wide regional differences with North Eastern being the most unsafe place to give birth, followed by Nyanza, Eastern, Rift Valley, Western, Coast, Nairobi and Central in that order.
“For the last two decades, Kenya has maintained unacceptably high levels of maternal deaths while efforts to curb the deaths have not made any difference so far,” says the Kenya Population Situation Analysis launched yesterday to coincide with the release of The State of World Population 2013 report by the United Nations.
The report recommends urgent and specific measures to be taken to understand why in some areas like North Eastern, the situation is so bad.
It wants all counties by 2015 to have established a system for registration of births, deaths and causes of death.
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