Kenyans have continued to shy away from permanent methods of family planning, a report shows.
According to the Economic Survey report released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, the number of women undergoing tubal ligation decreased to 3,616 in 2021 from 4,435 in 2020.
This was a decrease from 8,941 in 2019 and 10,814 in 2018.
Tubal ligation is a surgical procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut, tied or blocked to permanently prevent pregnancy.
On the other hand, vasectomy (male sterilisation) recorded 248 clients in 2021, a decline from 334 in 2020 and 658 in 2019. The number of clients was 807 in 2017.
“The most commonly used method of contraception was Family Planning (FP) Injections with 595,700 new clients and 1.8 million re-visits in 2021,” the report says.
It says implants insertion had the second-highest number of new clients at 576,000, while pills had the second-highest number of revisits at 475,000 during the review period.
The report shows that the number of adolescents aged between 10 and 14 years presenting at the first antenatal care visit increased by 5,823 in 2021.
The data shows the numbers increased from 17,467 in 2020 to 23,290 in 2021.
The report further indicates that the number of deliveries in health facilities increased by 5.7 per cent to 1.2 million in 2021 from 1.1 million in 2020.
Normal delivery increased by 5.2 per cent to one million in 2021 from 973,882 in 2020 while the number of deliveries through caesarean section increased by 6.6 per cent to 201,510 in 2021 from 198,119 in 2020.
A similar study by Performance Monitoring and Action Family Planning Survey showed that injectables and implants have remained the dominant methods of contraception among all women, accounting for over 70 per cent of the method mix.
“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,” Prof Peter Gichangi said.
Gichangi is the principal investigator PMA Kenya.
