Kenyan men don't want to have babies, survey shows

The number of men resorting to permanent family planning methods more than doubled last year while the number of teenage pregnancies continued to decrease.

According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, 4,107 women underwent sterilisation bilateral tubal litigation while 557 men underwent sterilisation vasectomy.

These statistics show that more men are embracing permanent sterilisation which consequently could be contributing to the reduced number of pregnancies.

The survey released on Wednesday indicates that the number of adolescents presenting with pregnancy during the first antenatal care visit declined nationally to 260,400 in 2022.

In recent years, statistics have shown that for women, the desire to have more children has sharply reduced. Also, more married women are using modern contraceptive methods.

However, more than half of women who are currently married with no children wish to have a child, those with three children want more and those with six children are less likely to desire children.

Further, the survey suggests that most men could be having more than one partner. The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey show that more women aged between 20 and 29 were more promiscuous, having more than two partners and had intercourse in the last 12 months (2022) with a person who neither was their husband nor lived with them.

Women from Murang'a recorded the highest number of women who had multiple partners, followed by Kericho, Busia, Kiambu, Bungoma, Nairobi and Kilifi.

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Family planning

A previous survey showed that the uptake of permanent family planning was low with the number of women undergoing sterilisation bilateral tubal ligation decreasing to 3,616 in 2021, while that of men undergoing sterilisation vasectomy was 248.

The survey shows that the number of new clients for all the contraceptive methods declined except for pills combined with oral contraceptives and sterilisation for both males and females.

Also, 2.6 million women took family planning injections, retaining it as the most used method of contraception, and 1.1 million clients took implant insertions.

In the period under review, the number of adolescents aged between 10-19 years presenting with pregnancy at 1st antenatal visit reduced by 35.4 percent to 15,043 in 2022. Bungoma, Kakamega, Narok, Nairobi City and Meru counties contributed the highest number of adolescents presenting with pregnancy at 1st antenatal visit.

The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey More than 4 in 10 currently married women want to limit childbearing, 43 percent want no more children and three percent are sterilised.

According to the survey, more women aged between 45 to 49 years have undergone permanent sterilization, followed by those aged 40 to 44 years then those aged 35 to 39 years old.

In men, those aged 40 to 49 years are the highest takers of permanent vasectomy.

According to area of residence, ironically, women from rural areas are undergoing sterilisation more than urbanites. Also, more middle-class women are undergoing sterilization, followed by those in the second quantile of wealth, then the highly wealthy.

The highest number of women undergoing permanent sterilisation are from Bomet followed by Nyamira, Busia, Laikipia and Makueni.

Promiscuity among teenagers was also high, with boys aged between 15 and 24 years being among men with more than 2 partners.

Men between the age of 25 and 29 were more promiscuous followed by those aged between 20 to 24 years, with more than half of these lot having had intercourse in the last 12 months with a person who was neither their wife nor lived with them.