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Mandera county has been ranked as the county with the highest fertility rate with about eight children per woman, for the last three years compared to the national rate of above five children.

This is a sharp increase as the county had an average of 3.4 fertility rate in 2014 lower than the national figure of about four children per woman in the same year.

Other counties following closely are Wajir and West Pokot with seven children per woman each, Marsabit, Samburu and Turkana with six children per woman each.

The 2022 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) shows that two counties of Tana River and Garissa recorded a minimum of five children per woman while Lamu, Isiolo, Narok, Baringo, Kwale, Elgeyo Marakwet and Siaya had majority of the women with more than four children in the last three years.

Majority of the counties had a fertility rate of between three and four children per woman in the period under review.

A total of four counties including Nyamira, Kiambu, Nairobi, Machakos and Kirinyaga had the lowest fertility rate of between two to three children per woman.

KDHS data showed that in Mandera eight out of 10 women have access to menstrual health while nationally the number of women was placed at 97 per cent.

Appropriate materials

“Among women (in Mandera) age 15-49 whose most recent menstrual period was in the last year and who were at home during their menstrual period, 79 per cent were able to wash and change in privacy and who used appropriate materials during last menstruation,” the report shows.

Literacy levels among women from the north-eastern county is low with 71 per cent have no education compared to 34 per cent among men.

The report shows that only a mere two data.

  The survey estimates that nationally, about two per cent of women are not assisted by anyone during child birth while half of all pregnant women are attended by doctors while giving birth.

  KDHS also showed that about nine in every 10 men accompany their wives to a health facility compared to a mere six at the national level.

Percent of women have more than secondary school education while 12 and 15 per cent have secondary and primary education respectively.

Three out of 10 girls in Mandera aged between 15 and 19 are teenage mothers compared to national statistics that showed 15 per cent of girls in Kenya had a child at that age during the period under review.

To explain the high fertility rate in the county, KDHS survey showed that on two in every 10 women were using a method of family planning while countrywide 63 per cent of the women were under birth control.

Pills, injectable and implants were used sparingly at one per cent each while no man embraced male condom as a method of family planning.

Traditional birth control methods are unpopular with less than one per cent of the women using them.

Eight out of ten women in Mandera are of the view that there is no need for family planning, while 17 per cent indicated that their need for a suitable family planning method was not met.

According to the survey, 21 out of 1,000 children in Mandera are likely to die before attaining the age of five years.

About 20 infants’ deaths were reported, while 16 cases of neonatal and four cases of post neonatal mortality were recorded during the period in Mandera in every 1,000 cases of survey. 

Neonatal mortality

As of 2022, out of 1,000 live births in Kenya KDHS reported 21 cases of neonatal mortality while infant and under five mortality stood at 32 and 41 cases respectively.

Additionally majority of women in the county, about seven in 10 went for antenatal clinic where services were provided by a skilled person including a doctor, a nurse, midwife or a clinical officer.

About 38 per cent attended more than four antenatal clinics while six per cent attended the clinic in their first trimester.

Nationally data showed that 98 per cent of the women received antenatal clinic services from a skilled provider, 66 per cent attended more than four clinics while 29 per cent had the antenatal clinic during their first trimester.

Equal number of Mandera women deliver their children either at home or in a health facility where they are attended by a skilled health service provider.

KDHS survey indicates that fertility rate in Mandera county is the highest in the country with eight children per woman as compared to the national rate of five children. PD/courtesy