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Kenya’s population is largely young. Persons aged 19 years and below account for more than half of population while those aged 15 years and below form 45% of country’s population (census, 2009).
Young people especially girls have unique health and development needs, they are faced by enormous challenges such as teenage pregnancy which often compromise their health and future. Early sexual debut, unplanned pregnancy, and higher number of births remain issues for adolescent girls and young women.
According to the Kenya demographic and health survey (2014), 15% of women age 15-19 have already had at least one birth. The percentage of women who have begun child bearing increases rapidly with age, from about 3% among women age 15 to 40% among women age 19. The rural-urban difference is small; indicating that early child bearing is nearly the same across place of residence.
The study also shows that slightly more than 3 in 10 women age 15-19 with no education have begun child bearing compared with only 12% among those who have secondary or higher level of education. Similarly, teenagers from poor households are more likely to have begun child bearing (26%) than teenagers from wealthier households (10%).
Prevalence of early childbearing is highest in counties within Nyanza region at 22.2% (KDHS, 2014) followed by Rift Valley 21.2% and Coast 21%; it is lowest in Central 10% and North Eastern region 12.2%. According to KDHS 2014 Homabay County has highest rate of early childbearing which stands at 33.3%, followed by Nyamira at 27.8% and 24.3% within the Nyanza region.
Contraceptive prevalence is lowest among 15-19 year olds and is known to increase with education, nationally only 40% of adolescents have access to contraceptives; young people aged 20-24 only 53.5% have access to contraceptives. KDHS 2014 shows that sexually active unmarried women have a higher unmet need for contraception compared to married women, it also shows that women with no education and in the lowest wealth
