For every baby you conceive, I will give you Sh500... cash!

Joseph Kanyi | NATION
Councillor Habel Kijana Mutahi believes the only way he can help re-populate his ward is through financial incentives to women.

What you need to know:

  • Councillor Habel Kijana Mutahi of Giathugu Ward believes in numbers, but today he is a worried man. Women in his village no longer get pregnant, the men are neck-deep in illicit liquor, and the elderly offer no answers to his queries

What would you do if one day you woke up and, to your shock, realised that the average age of your fellow villagers has more than doubled in a span of 20 years?

To whom would you turn if it hit you that it is not just your village that is experiencing a population crisis, but that the problems of your little hamlet are replicated across the hills and vales, beyond the horizon?

To most people, this would be good enough information to call a press conference and announce that the country is facing a human resource problem. But for councillor Habel Kijana Mutahi of Giathugu Ward in Mukurwe-ini, this was an opportunity to stand up and change the dynamics affecting his people.

When Mr Mutahi realised that the youths of his ward were no longer getting married or bearing children, he decided that the only way to reverse the trend was through incentives to encourage his fellow villagers to get babies. That is how he came up with a scheme to award Sh500 to every woman who fell pregnant, and Sh2,000 for every birth.

Lowest growth

His initiative, he says, does not just target the re-population of his ward, but also that of the entire Central region, which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons since the publishing of the results of the 2009 national population census survey, which indicated that Central Province had the lowest population growth rate in 10 years.

The region registered a total number of 4,383,743 people, compared to 3,724,159 in 1999, which translates to an increase of one million persons in the period under survey.

Mukurwe-ini Constituency, according to statistics gathered from the provincial commissioner’s office, registered a total of 83,932 persons, compared to 87,447 people in the 1999 census, and it was that decrease of 3,515 persons that captured Mr Mutahi’s attention.

While the rest of the country grew, Mukurwe-ini’s human resource shrunk! What could have happened?

“The high rate of poverty here, coupled with rural-urban migration and the consumption of illicit liquor, has decimated our numbers,” Mr Mutahi says. And, sadly, he may be right.

Mukurwe-ini residents used to rely on coffee farming before the sector went to the dogs, taking with it their livelihoods. Left with nothing to live for, and with the cost of living rising every day, the youths of the region took to their heels, leaving behind a largely elderly population that could do little to balance the population equation.

Enter Kijana Mutahi, and all that is about to change. Even though the Sh500 with which he rewards every woman who falls pregnant in his ward is not much, it goes a long way in appreciating the fact that the re-population of his sleepy hamlet will have to be done by the residents.

Reward for the little trouble

That is why, after every small village gathering he organises, he requests every woman who is pregnant — or thinks she is — to remain behind as the rest leave so that she can get her reward for the trouble. Pregnancies, no doubt, are a valued asset here.

Valued and rare. According to Mr Mutahi, there are four public health facilities in his ward, and records indicate that less than 10 pregnant women visit them in a month.

The civic leader recalls a meeting held in May this year in which an administrator announced that only one child had been born in Giathugu Ward in the month of March. And from January to August this year, the ward had celebrated the birth of only 17 babies.

His cash-for-pregnancy programme is still in its infancy stage, and Mr Mutahi says he has managed to convert nine women so far. Not a bad start, he says.
“I do this out of the love that I have towards my constituents,” he says, adding that the money he dishes out comes from his salary.

Change fortunes

One of the beneficiaries of the project is 22-year-old Florence Wairimu, a mother of three who says her councillor’s programme is likely to change, in more ways than one, the fortunes of Giathugu.

“I like the direction this programme is taking. It may not be worth much, but I believe it will greatly change the demographics of this area,” she says as she cuddles her last-born daughter Tracy Wambura, the little girl whose birth earned her mother a Sh2,000 shopping voucher.

“The young men here have abdicated their social duty, and it is only through such initiatives that this area can get back on its feet.”

But, while Ms Wairimu blames the population crisis on men, Ms Mary Wanjugu, 28, points an accusing finger at her fellow women, whom, she says, abuse contraceptives behind their husbands’ backs.

However, she admits that most of the men here are habitual drunks who neglect their families, forcing women to search for food and other necessities for their children. Because of this, Ms Wanjugu says, many women go the contraceptive way to check the size of their families.

“We want our children to have a good life, and that is the only way we can ensure that we can adequately provide for their needs,” she says, and, by that single utterance, attracts the wrath of Ms Damaris Wamuyu, 64, and Ms Teresiah Wahito 74.

To these elderly women, the problem with Mukurwe-ini is not that the men have been poisoned by the beer bottle, or that the youth no longer get married.

The issue, they say, is that people claim to be so westernised that they only give birth to one or two babies.

But there is a problem. The roads and paths here are trodden by tens of stoop-backed fellows, with no youngsters in sight for miles. Church pews are filled by elderly women with torn scarfs wrapped around their greying heads, and chief Wanjohi Ngumo worries about what will happen to his people once this elderly generation takes the final bow.

“We are in a crisis,” he admits. “Family planning is taking a toll on us.”

Compounded by urbanisation

And the Mukurwe-ini Catholic Parish priest, Fr Martin Mwangi, agrees. Fr Mwangi believes that the problem is compounded by urbanisation, where people leave their rural homes in droves and head to the nearest market centre to eke out a living. He says it is a tragedy that a region with so many well-educated people like Mukurwe-ini is swimming in poverty.

“Although councillor Mutahi is giving hope to his people, this might not be the right way to tackle this problem,” he says, adding that he has already involved a number of youths in programmes run by the church aimed at making them feel appreciated and enhance their community productivity.

Fr Mwangi says 70 per cent of his congregation is made up of the elderly, while the rest is shared between young adults, the youth, teenagers, and children.

Not a bad margin

At the Mukurwe-ini District Hospital, the medical superintendent, Dr Tony Njoka, says the Central region leads in the country in contraceptive use.

“We have recorded about 60 per cent usage, and this is not a bad margin,” he says.

However, Dr Njoka denies claims that the birth rate in the area is not sustainable, explaining that the reason there are no queues in maternity wards is because the government has provided enough medical centres for residents.

Although Mr Mutahi, who is serving his first term after being elected in 2007, admits that what he is doing might not completely solve the problem, he says his initiative will encourage more youths to shun irresponsible practices and embrace matrimony.

And so, Sh500 after Sh500, his little hamlet is slowly repopulating.