Is Kenya’s reproductive health access to information, services and commodities failing women and girls?
Sponsored by KELIN
By Doris Kathia
A woman should not have to beg for contraception. A girl should not have to struggle to find accurate information about her own body. And no woman facing a reproductive health emergency should be turned away because a facility lacks medicines, supplies or trained personnel. Yet for many women and girls in Kenya, these barriers remain a reality.
Kenya has made important progress. According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022, modern contraceptive use among married women increased from 32 percent in 2003 to 57 percent in 2022, while unmet needs for family planning fell from 27 percent to 14 per cent.
But national averages do not tell the whole story. They do not capture the adolescent afraid to seek contraception, the woman told her preferred method is out of stock, the survivor of sexual violence unable to access confidential care, or the woman who arrives at a facility only to find it lacks the staff, equipment or medicines she needs.
Reproductive health access is more than the availability of services. It requires accurate information, affordable and confidential care, essential commodities, functioning referral systems, adequately equipped facilities and healthcare providers who can deliver services without stigma or discrimination.
Information is an important part of this chain. Women and girls need to understand their bodies, know their reproductive health options and know where and when to seek care. Yet many young people still rely on social media, friends, pharmacies and informal networks for answers that should also be available through trusted healthcare providers and age-appropriate sexuality education.
Restrictive policies can compound these barriers. Although Kenya's age of majority is 18, the National Reproductive Health Policy 2022–2032 states that full cognitive competence on sexuality and reproduction is attained at 21, and emphasises parental involvement for those below that age. In practice, this can create difficulties for young people who cannot safely involve their parents or guardians.
But information alone is not enough if services and commodities are unavailable.
Kenya has experienced persistent contraceptive stock-outs. Research by the African Population and Health Research Center found contraceptives were unavailable in 19 percent of visits by mystery clients to facilities in western Kenya. More recent reports have warned of shortages of oral contraceptives, injectables, emergency contraception and other family-planning commodities.
The consequences can be serious. An unmet need for contraception can result in an unintended pregnancy. Inadequate access to safe and timely care can then turn that pregnancy into a health crisis.
A study by APHRC, the Ministry of Health and the Guttmacher Institute estimated that Kenya recorded more than 1.4 million unintended pregnancies and 792,694 induced abortions in 2023. It also identified significant gaps in post-abortion care, including shortages of essential medicines and inadequate capacity at health facilities.
This points to a broader problem. Kenya's reproductive health challenge is not one single policy, commodity or service. It is a chain of barriers –misinformation, stigma, restrictive rules, cost, distance, provider attitudes, commodity shortages, weak referral systems and poorly equipped facilities.
These barriers also affect women differently. Adolescents, women with disabilities, survivors of sexual violence, women living in poverty and those in underserved areas may face additional obstacles to obtaining timely and dignified care.
Kenya therefore needs a reproductive health system that works across the entire continuum of care. Government must ensure reliable financing and procurement of essential commodities, strengthen facility readiness and referral systems, provide clear guidance to healthcare workers, and hold national and county institutions accountable for persistent gaps.
Young people must also have access to accurate, age-appropriate information and confidential services. Comprehensive sexuality education is part of that solution, but it cannot substitute for functioning facilities, affordable services and reliable supplies.
When medicines are missing, information is inaccessible, services are unaffordable, facilities are unprepared or stigma keeps women away, reproductive health becomes a right that exists largely on paper.
Women and girls deserve more than policies and promises. They deserve a health system that enables them to make informed decisions and access quality care safely, affordably and with dignity.
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Ms Doris Kathia is a human rights defender and communications expert
