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- Feb 6, 2014
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Kenya faces population crisis as 43pc of pregnancies unintended Updated Wednesday, February 26th 2014.
Nearly half of children in the country would not have been born if their parents were aware of contraceptives or could access them, according to a
population expert. Dr Alex Ezeh, the Executive Director of African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) notes that research indicates many
women get pregnant because of barriers in accessing contraceptives and lack of knowledge on how to plan their families. "If it was their wish, they would
not get pregnant. We did research and it indicated that 43 per cent of all pregnancies are unintended, meaning that the increase in literacy levels in the
country has not been accompanied by corresponding knowledge on contraceptive use," said Ezeh, who was speaking in Busia during a meeting with
county government officials on Tuesday. Steal limelight He blamed the low use of contraceptives to neglect of family planning programmes.
"There is need to rejuvenate efforts to sensitise communities on family planning to tame the rising population," he said. He noted that the fight against HIV
has stolen thunder from campaigns to push for contraceptives use and family planning.
And Kenya is paying dearly for this. Failure to push the family planning agenda is impacting adversely on every sector of the economy that includes
agriculture, health and education. "A country's development is not judged just by the quality of roads, rosy economic figures or even how well its education
is doing; the real measure of a country is the quality of her people and family planning defines this quality," stated Ezeh. In a study titled Magnitude and
Incident of Unsafe Abortion in Kenya released last August, APHRC found out that Busia and Siaya were among counties with highest unmet contraceptive
needs.
Read more at: Standard Digital News - Kenya : Kenya faces population crisis as 43pc of pregnancies unintended
Nearly half of children in the country would not have been born if their parents were aware of contraceptives or could access them, according to a
population expert. Dr Alex Ezeh, the Executive Director of African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) notes that research indicates many
women get pregnant because of barriers in accessing contraceptives and lack of knowledge on how to plan their families. "If it was their wish, they would
not get pregnant. We did research and it indicated that 43 per cent of all pregnancies are unintended, meaning that the increase in literacy levels in the
country has not been accompanied by corresponding knowledge on contraceptive use," said Ezeh, who was speaking in Busia during a meeting with
county government officials on Tuesday. Steal limelight He blamed the low use of contraceptives to neglect of family planning programmes.
"There is need to rejuvenate efforts to sensitise communities on family planning to tame the rising population," he said. He noted that the fight against HIV
has stolen thunder from campaigns to push for contraceptives use and family planning.
And Kenya is paying dearly for this. Failure to push the family planning agenda is impacting adversely on every sector of the economy that includes
agriculture, health and education. "A country's development is not judged just by the quality of roads, rosy economic figures or even how well its education
is doing; the real measure of a country is the quality of her people and family planning defines this quality," stated Ezeh. In a study titled Magnitude and
Incident of Unsafe Abortion in Kenya released last August, APHRC found out that Busia and Siaya were among counties with highest unmet contraceptive
needs.
Read more at: Standard Digital News - Kenya : Kenya faces population crisis as 43pc of pregnancies unintended
