Unplanned families to blame for West Pokot poverty
A mother at Alale village, West Pokot, breastfeeds her twins.
What you need to know:
- The county has an average poverty level of 67 per cent, higher than the national level of 45 per cent; family planning uptake was 26 per cent as per the 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey report.
- Teenage pregnancy stands at 29 per cent and three in 10 teenage girls have either had their first child or are pregnant with their firstborn.
The high fertility rate among West Pokot women has led to population explosion, contributing to high poverty levels, experts have warned.
Nearly every woman has seven or eight children. The county has an average poverty level of 67 per cent, higher than the national level of 45 per cent. Family planning uptake was 26 per cent as per the 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey report.
The county has about 800,000 people, but 70 per cent of residents live on less than a dollar a day. Teenage pregnancy stands at 29 per cent and three in 10 teenage girls have either had their first child or are pregnant with their firstborn.
The county is third in the country in low uptake of child spacing methods, as traditions hamper efforts of women who are willing to adopt family planning.
Hurdles in poverty war
National Council for Population Development (NCPD) North Rift region coordinator John Anampio says rapid population growth, fuelled by high fertility, presents a barrier to reducing poverty and reaching other internationally agreed development goals.
“The high population growth rate is only a threat to the region's development if a large number of people are a liability rather than an asset to the country. When people are poor, they become sexually active, politicians interfere telling them to sire many children to raise population to get more resources and funds because of the formula used in sharing resources,” he said.
Mr Anampio said high fertility strains budgets of poor families, reducing available resources to feed, educate, and provide healthcare to children. Conversely, poverty contributes to high fertility—high infant mortality, lack of education for women, too little family income to “invest” in children, inequitable shares in national income, and inaccessibility of family planning.
“A large population is a problem if the county government has failed to mobilise its resources and has inadequate social services. Many children are being born from poor families, making it hard for parents to sustain them,” he said.
“The family size and child spacing are crucial in family management. Having many children is a burden, especially in West Pokot where there is food shortage and hunger. It becomes hard to take many children to school and look after their health.”
School dropouts
Mr Anampio, citing research done by NCPD, said poverty and other cultural, religious and social barriers are responsible for two million boys and girls not being in school.
“Despite the government's commitment to providing reproductive health and family planning to all Kenyans, cultural and religious beliefs and values pose persistent challenges, which affect realisation of goals on sexual and reproductive health and rights," said Mr Anampio.
Mr Anampio said one in every 10 women in West Pokot uses modern contraceptives. He spoke during a reproductive health meeting in Kapenguria on Saturday.
“Men in the Pokot Community tend to believe it’s the duty of only women to practise family planning. Unplanned pregnancy is perceived as an achievement without putting in mind the life of the child is being put at risk,” he said.
He said West Pokot is among the counties with the highest malnutrition rate of 35.1 per cent according to a recent smart survey done by the Ministry of Health and Action against Hunger Organisation (ACF) malnutrition in 2019 from 45.9 per cent in 2014 and many children are suffering from chronic malnutrition because of poor feeding due to food insecurity.
“A larger percentage of Pokot community is pastoralist and many families depend on meat and milk as their staple food, which isn’t a balanced diet, hence contributing to malnutrition,” said Mr Anampio.
Quality life
Declares Kenya Organisation director Jefferson Mudaki said their goal is to attain high-quality life for the people by managing population growth to a level that can be sustained by available resources.
“It will take years and efforts of different organisations to educate the community on the importance of family planning as younger women and girls feel the burden of raising large families without the support of their husbands. In the olden days, after women gave birth, the husband ran away from home. But nowadays, our men are about to accept family planning,” he said.
He attributed low uptake of contraceptives to poverty, high illiteracy, ignorance and cultural influence, political pronouncements, perception that girls should be married off for parents to get cows, and adequate health facilities. The county is number three in the country on female genital mutilation (FGM) prevalence.
“West Pokot has the least health facilities with few facilities, a factor that contributes to low access to family planning services. The Pokot community still holds on to its culture that a woman should give birth to children till the end. The topography of West Pokot hinders women from accessing health facilities. Places like Endough, Chepnyal and Alale health facilities are far apart,” said Mr Mudaki.
“We need health centres to be five kilometres apart.”
Doctor-patient ratio
Mudaki noted that the doctor-to-patient ratio is still a major problem to residents. North Rift counties with the worst ratios are Turkana at 1:52,000 and West Pokot at 1: 85,000.
“The county government has tried to build health centres in the remote areas of West Pokot County, but the facilities lack doctors and nurses to render services to patients,” said Mr Mudaki.
Immunisation coverage nationally as per KDHS 2014 was 68 per cent and West Pokot has the least coverage at 30.5 per cent.
Most mothers avoid clinic services even during the first nine months after delivery as health facilities are far.
“Girls become pregnant at early age, FGM is also rampant in some parts of West Pokot County. After FGM early marriages are experienced. The young mothers have no experience of antenatal and postnatal healthcare,” he added.
Mr Mudaki noted that teenage girls have been trapped in pregnancy as their hope of completing their education, starting a career or becoming financially independent is dimmed.
“When women and girls have access to contraception, everybody wins: fewer girls drop out of school, fewer mothers die giving birth and more young women enter the workforce. Multiply that by millions, and it becomes clear why contraception is one of the smartest investments countries can make,” he said, calling on stakeholders to include politicians in population programmes.
“The county is rated among the highest in malnutrition. 60 percent of residents in West Pokot are living one dollar per day.”
Mr Mudaki called on the government to help get children out of the streets.
“Right now we have many street children in Kapenguria town,” she said.
Retrogressive practices
Mr Mudaki added that ensuring young people have the information they need about sex is a real challenge, particularly in societies where unmarried teenagers are excluded from receiving information and sexual health services and men remain decision-makers on family planning issues.
County Health and Sanitation executive Christine Apokoreng attributed high population rate to FGM and early marriages and called on the community to do away with such retrogressive practices.
She noted that they have put measures in place to end teenage pregnancies.
“West Pokot has impacted negatively on the girl child because they cannot complete their education as scheduled. We want to form a strong team to eliminate teenage pregnancy in the county. We are committed to make sure every child goes to school, but many cases of teenage pregnancies were taking us back,” she said.
She explained that many factors contribute to high teenage pregnancies like lack of role models to guide girls on how to behave, parents failing on their duties, wrong use of technology like smartphones, no emphasis on family planning issues and lack youth-friendly services.
“Many girls have nowhere to sleep and they opt to go to the neighbour’s home,” said Ms Apokoreng.
Governor John Lonyangapuo said his administration has provided significant financial support to family planning, mostly for advocacy and community mobilisation, service delivery, capacity building and other services like abortion care.
