Most young women who have their first sexual encounter before age 18 do so out of curiosity, a study has shown.
And although nearly half of young women report having had sex before the age of 18, just 11 per cent have used a contraceptive, the Performance Monitoring for Action has established.
When asked about the motivation for their first sexual encounter, 41 per cent said they were just curious, 31.1 per cent said they were carried away while 16 per said they were coerced.
The findings released on Friday showed four in 10 sexually active adolescents are using a modern contraceptive method compared to six in 10 married women.
According to the survey, girls in rural areas start engaging in sex earlier, marry earlier, give birth earlier and start using contraceptives later than women in urban areas.
The findings were released by Prof Peter Gichangi, the Principal Investigator PMA Kenya- International Centre for Reproductive Kenya.
The survey was conducted in 11 counties—Bungoma, Kakamega, Kericho, Kiambu, Kilifi, Kitui, Nairobi, Nandi, Nyamira, Siaya and West Pokot.
Data was collected between November and December 2019 from 10,378 households among women aged 15-49, with a response rate of 98.7 per cent being recorded.
The survey further shows that the rate of unwanted pregnancies remains high, despite Kenya making progress in promoting the uptake of family planning methods.
The percentage of unwanted pregnancies stands at 42 per cent.
The data shows a decline in modern contraceptive prevalence rate among married women since 2015 from 62 to 56 per cent.
“This means we have to interrogate our family planning programmes. That is why we are working closely with universities so that the students can be encouraged to do more research in some of these areas,” Gichangi said.
According to the data, the percentage of women aged 15-49 currently using a modern contraceptive method has declined from 46 to 43 per cent in all women since 2015.
The rate among unmarried sexually active women saw a slight decline from 58 per cent in 2015 to 54 per cent, 56 per cent and 55 per cent in 2016, 2017 and 2018 before stagnating at 58 per cent in 2019.
“There was a shift towards long-acting family planning methods from 11 to 20 per cent among all women. This has been due to an increase in implant use,” Gichangi said.
Implants use among married women currently stands at 41 per cent and 26 per cent among unmarried sexually active women.
“Among women who started using a contraceptive within two years preceding the survey, four per cent discontinued within one year to get pregnant, two per cent experienced a method failure, eight per cent were concerned over side effects or health,” Gichangi said.
“Thirteen per cent wanted a more effective method, 13 per cent had other fertility related reasons while four per cent don’t know why. Nineteen per cent discontinued but switched to other methods.”
Three per cent of women still use traditional contraception methods.
“Women are moving away from traditional methods, which is a good thing,” he said.
On the other hand, use of short-acting methods has been on a decline from 30 per cent in 2014 to 23 per cent in 2019.
In relation to attitudes towards contraception, 52 per cent of respondents between 15 and 19 years strongly agreed that adolescents who use family planning methods are promiscuous while 51 per cent believe family planning is only for married women.
The rate was 48 per cent among 20 to 24-year-olds and highest among 25 to-49-year-olds at 55 per cent, with 42 and 46 per cent respectively believing that family planning is only for married women.
“Women who are employed are more likely to be using or intending to use modern contraception,” Gichangi said.
