"Our faith does not allow a woman to be naked before a man who is not her husband. Some of the methods require women to undress before the family planning method is injected. It is one of the reasons why the Nubian community has been slow to embrace it," says a mother of five who asked not to be named.
She also noted that the same issue also affects them whenever they are invited to go for cervical cancer screening. "We cannot go for such screenings unless the doctor available is a female," she says.
Pauline Owino, a community health promoter (CHP), said the Boresha Jamii project helped them intensify dialogue with the communities on sexual and reproductive health.
"We have had a lot of dialogue with the families, and we have changed perceptions about family planning. We trained religious leaders also to help us pass the information," she says.
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She is among the champions trained through the USAID Boresha Jamii project implemented by JOOUST.
Dorcas Ogutu, the sub-county community health services focal person for Kisumu East, says that the intervention by the religious leaders has helped improve demand for family planning.
For instance, when the camp was first established in 2021, only four families had embraced family planning. However, 36 families had embraced family planning at the beginning of November 2024.
Jane Kachiki, another CHP in charge of 10 households and more women at the camp, has been inquiring about the best modern family planning options.
A 42-year-old father of five told The Standard that he had opted to go for a vasectomy. He believes family planning is crucial in helping families better care for themselves.
"I did not believe in family planning, but religious leaders have managed to convince me of the need to embrace it," he says.
According to the Kenya Democratic Health Survey Report, 2022, the country's total demand for family planning increased between 2003 to 2022 from 32 per cent to 57 per cent. Over the same period, unmet needs declined from 35 per cent to 14 per cent.
Nationally, 63 per cent of Kenyans use family planning, of which 57 per cent use modern methods and six per cent use traditional methods.
Among modern family planning methods adopted by Kenyans include Injectables at 20 per cent, implants (19 per cent), pills (eight per cent), and Injectable Drug Users (IDU) at four per cent.
In Kisumu, the percentage of women who have embraced modern family planning methods stands at 57 per cent while the total demand stands at 76.9 per cent.
Experts believe the use of dialogue will help bolster the number of families embracing modern methods.
However, the intervention by the religious leaders is still grappling with the deep cultural beliefs among the Nubian families and the religious practices that embrace polygamy.
They have to strike a balance between promoting religious doctrines while at the same time advancing the need to embrace spaced births.