Alcoholism not to blame for population decline in Central Kenya

The population within Central Kenya is not being affected by alcoholism but rather by high contraceptives use amongst women in the region, this is according to National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) research.

Regional Coordinator for the NCPD Millicent Dorcus Oluteyo said that according to the Kenya National Bureau Statistics Socio-economic Atlas of Kenya 2014, Central region has the highest uptake of contraceptives use in the country with 72 per cent of married women.

This means that Central Kenya is leading since the national average for contraception use among married women is 58 percent.

The report indicates that total number of children that a woman can give birth to during her reproductive years is only 2.9 in Nyeri County which is one of the lowest total fertility rates in the country.

The national total Fertility rate is 3.8 which means that on average each woman is giving birth to about 4 children in her lifetime, in central Region the fertility rate is 2.8.

Women in Nyandarua are giving birth to an average of three children while in Murang'a only three children are born per woman.

In Nyeri and Kiambu the total fertility rate is 2.7 while Kirinyaga has the lowest fertility rates at 2.3.

Ms. Oluteyo explained that the factors affecting population growth were birth rates, migration patterns and death rates.

"In my observations the concerns raised that alcoholism is contributing to the low fertility rates is untrue because if a couple really focused on having more children they can come together and do so at any time," Ms. Oluteyo.

However there have been concerns by education stakeholders over the declining number of children who are in the school system.

A spot check in Kirichu Primary school indicated that for the last three years, the school has had to reduce the number of class streams in the lower primary classes.

Nicholas Gathemia the school head teacher insisted that one of the factors had to be alcoholism and low economic status of the families in the county.

"We used to have two classes for Standard one students but each year we had 20 children less which meant that we have to close one of the classes now we only have one Standard one class," said Gathemia.

He noted that the number of children in schools in the area had declined significantly in the past five years.