Funding reproductive health will boost Kenya’s contraceptive use

Mrembo Foundation has called on Kenyan government to invest more on adolescent health education and ease access to reproductive health facilities to harness the power of youth in socio- economic development of the country.

Mrembo founder, Stella Marosi has today said the country’s devolved units and noble plan to devolve the health functions to county governments makes it possible to reach out to majority of promising youth who holds key to shaping development in the country.

“While there is a considerable uptake of contraceptive in Kenya, the embrace is not even largely due to low awareness and misconception. We can leverage on counties to reach out to more youths- the leaders of tomorrow,” said Marosi.

On Tuesday, September 26, 2017, the world will be marking World Contraception Day – it’s an annual worldwide campaign that centers around a vision where every pregnancy is wanted.

The campaigns strongly advocates for more awareness creation of contraception to enable young people make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) puts contraceptives use in the country at 58 per cent nationally.

Mrembo lauds Central part of Kenya that leads in contraceptive use at 73 per cent, saying it serves as a case study to employ successful strategies in places like North-Eastern where uptake is at 3 percent.

Kenyan women are ranked as having the lowest number of children in East Africa, with average births per woman stagnating at 3.9, or about four children in the past two years.

 The rate has dropped from an average of five in 2008 on increased use of contraceptive, higher education levels for women and late onset of motherhood.

Kenya’s fertility rate is however below Africa’s average of 4.6 or about five children for every woman but still higher than the global average of 2.5, according to World Population Data prepared by US-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB).

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