Birth rates could be declared a national disaster in Kenya

By PAUL MUTUA

Kitui, Kenya: The National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) has hinted of attempts to declare the increasing population rate in the country a national disaster.

The council said that population was an issue in Kenya and a strict measure should be formulated to check the worrying trend.

NCPD’s deputy director in-charge of policy and research, Vane Mulumba said it was mandatory for Kenyans to manage population through family planning to avoid a catastrophe.

Ms Mulumba outlined three factors fuelling the enormous challenges in large families namely reproductivity, mortality and migration.

The deputy director, however, said the government in the meantime has embarked on community-based family planning approaches to curb population growth and achieve its development goals as laid down in Vision 2030.

“We need to champion our population by playing a central role in controlling it for quality life,” she told a family planning campaign workshop at Kitui's Parkside Villa Hotel.

Mulumba said the current population growth of one million per year affected development by forcing the Government to increase investments in basic social infrastructure.

“An estimated one million people are added each year. As per United Nations’ projections, the population will reach 66 million by 2030. We need to cut this birth rate,” the deputy director said.

Mulumba said the family planning use through community-based approaches was one of the most cost-effective investments to curb the huge reproductive rate in the county.

She regretted unplanned pregnancies which lead to high risk births and called for ambitious campaign among the communities to initiate advocacy against the threat.