PLANNING Minister Wycliffe Oparanya yesterday called upon the public to undertake family planning measures in a move aimed at controlling the current birth rates in the country. It is estimated that one million people are added to Kenya annually, a worrying trend that Oparanya says will have an adverse impact to the country’s meager resources.
Oparanya urged the public to engage in efforts that will slow down the current growth rate which has stalled at five children per woman since 1993. “This is despite substantial gains recorded in childhood mortality reduction between 2003 and 2010,” Oparanya said. He was speaking in Nairobi during the re-launching of National Council for Population and Development’s Tujipange Family Planning initiative. Oparanya regretted the stagnation of inter-censal population growth, which stands at three per cent since the last census of 2009 that recorded a similar rating to that of 1999.
He challenged the public to revert to the uptake of contraceptives especially among women aged between 15 and 49, saying the initiative helped in reducing birth rates, family sizes and childhood mortality. “Kenya was able to attain the largest ever recorded drop in the census population growth rate from a high of 3.4 per cent between 1979-1989 to 2.9 per cent between 1989-1999.”
A recent study carried out on sexual behaviors revealed that 18 per cent of adolescents aged 15 and 19 years have began child bearing, a trend that calls for pro-active measures towards advocating for family planning initiatives. While Kenya s has been lauded for being the first country in Africa to roll out family planning measures, the initial successes have been diluted due to challenges ranging from HIV/Aids pandemic, and inadequate resources.
Oparanya said the government will undertake measures that will increase the contraceptive intake from the current 46 percent to 56 percent in the next three years. “About a quarter of married women of reproductive age in Kenya today have unmet need for family planning, a major factor contributing to the rapid population growth rate,” Oparanya said.
