Counties up north post high population growth

Counties in northern Kenya are experiencing the highest population growth rates compared to most parts of the country, a new report shows.

So high is the growth rate that in one of the counties, Mandera, the increase is 29 times more than the least growing, Nyeri.

Whereas the population growth rate in Mandera is 14.1 per cent, that of Nyeri is 0.4 per cent, a near plateau.

This, means for every 14 children born in Mandera, there is only one – or hardly any - born in Nyeri.

The Kenya County Fact sheet dated June 2013 and released by the Commission for Revenue Allocation shows that other than Mandera, neighbouring Wajir records the second highest rate of 7.3 per cent.

Ranked third is Turkana County at 6.4 per cent followed by Kajiado, whose population is rising at the rate of 5.3 per cent.

Another northern Kenya county, Marsabit, emerges fifth, with a population growth rate of five per cent.

Initially, the government cancelled results of the 2009 census for four northern Kenya districts on grounds they were exaggerated and ordered a repeat but local leaders challenged the move in court.

The districts affected were Mandera Central, Wajir East, Lagdera, Mandera East and Mandera West, Turkana Central, Turkana North and Turkana South.

The latest data on the growth rates appears to confirm data from the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development that shows married women in the arid and semi-arid north are the most active in child bearing, beating all other regions.

During their child bearing age of between 15 and 49 years, the women give birth to twice the number of children by their counterparts in Nairobi, current government statistics show.

On average, a northern Kenya woman would have six children during her reproductive period, compared to three for those in Nairobi.

According to the data obtained from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), overall, the proportion of married women who want no more children is highest in Eastern and Central regions and lowest in northern region.

“Women in North Eastern Province and, to a lesser extent, those in Coast province, are far more pro-natalist than women in other provinces,” says the 2008/9 KDHS report.

The report found out that between 86 per cent and 96 per cent of married women in nearly all parts of Kenya want to stop child-bearing after the sixth child except North Eastern, where only 10 per cent of women want to stop after six births.

Nationally, women are preferring to have an average of 4.6 children in their reproductive period.

High fertility rates in northern Kenya appear to be largely due to the fact that women in the region seldom use contraceptives.

Populous counties like Nairobi, Kakamega, Nakuru, Bungoma, Kisii, Mombasa, Meru have much lower population growth rates.

Vihiga is at position 46 with a population growth rate of one per cent. Makueni is at position 45 with 1.4 per cent.

Currently, Kenya’s population growth rate is at 2.9 per cent per year.

This translates to an addition of one million people yearly into a population, which stood at 38.6 million people in the 2009 census.