Kenya to reintroduce family planning to stop decline in Kenyan living standards
Originally published in The Standard - for Fairness and Justice in Nairobi, Kenya as Oparanya:High population compromising quality of life on Wednesday, 2 February 2011. Thanks, also, to the Overseas Immigration News Centre for notifying us of this story. Originally published on The Standard - for Fairness and Justice in Nairobi, Kenya as Oparanya:High population compromising quality of life on Wednesday, 2 February 2011. Thanks, also, to the Overseas Immigration News Centre for notifying us of this story.
The Kenyan Government plans to re-introduce family planning, Wycliffe Oparanya, Planning Minister has said. After the vigorous family planning campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s with positive results, the drive petered off after making modest gains, he said.
By Luke Anami
Kenyan government recognises that overpopulation impoverishes country
The Government plans to re-introduce family planning to check quality of Kenya’s population, Wycliffe Oparanya, Planning Minister has said.
This rapid growth against a gross domestic product of 1.7 per cent per annum would inevitably exert a lot of pressure on the economy.
A population policy will also be reviewed to bring it into conformity with Vision 2030 and the new Constitution and in order to address the effects of high population growth rate. "Last years census indicated the population is growing at three per cent, a very high rate as compared with the current economic growth that is still at 3.2 per cent," Oparanya said.
The minister said 2009 census results showed 65 per cent of the population is below the age of 35 yet the overall population is just about 40 million.
At the current growth rate of three per cent per annum, the population is expected to hit more than 64 million by 2030, translating to a million more children every year.
"The rate of population growth has outstripped the creation of wealth which calls into review our population policies and strategies. The awareness programmes in the 1980s will thus be reintroduced in a move to strike a balance between population growth and the resource base," Oparanya added.
He said after the vigorous family planning campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s with positive results, the drive petered off after making modest gains. There is thus a need to review the census plans to ensure resources are adequately distributed to cater for development in the 47 created counties.
Census results
"In order to effectively manage planning and distribution of resources, we plan to review the population policy that was last reviewed in 1989.
A stake holder’s meeting last week recommended the formulation of a policy within the framework of Vision 2030," Oparanya explained.
Anthony Kilele, Director General of Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said the incorporation of a communication strategy in the dissemination of 2009 census results was crucial in achieving standard results, a feet that should be emulated in other development matters.
"The award is a recognition of what a communication can achieve in development agenda of the Government," Kilele said.
How the public will respond to this development is a subject of discussion.
Kenya has recently approved plans to destroy some 20,000 hectares of the globally important and ecologically sensitive Tana Delta for sugar and biofuel production. Covering 130,000 hectares, these wetlands' diverse riverine vegetation -- forests, swamps, dunes, beaches and ocean -- will be forever altered by widespread vast fields of toxic, monoculture sugar cane and biofuel mill. The project threatens 350 species including birds, lions, hippos, nesting turtles, elephants, sharks, reptiles and the Tana red colobus, one of 25 primates facing extinction globally.
Recent comments