Kenya: Leaders Urged to Declare Commitment to Manage Population

By Henry Neondo

Delegates at the just concluded National Leaders Conference on Population and Development have urged the government to increase its annual budget for population and reproductive health.

Saying that rapid population growth results in unemployment; high rural-urban migration; child labour as well as human trafficking, there was need for the government to focus financing on population management.

The three day conference which started on Monday 15th at the Kenyatta International Conference was closed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local government ended with leaders who are drawn from the different counties urging the political class to support population management programmers instead of translating population growth to voters.

Arguing that with the current growth of one million children born per year, the country had already reached the 40 million mark since the last census. The delegates fell short of recommending a two child policy per couple to manage Kenya's population.

The conference which was focusing on the three pillars of the Vision 2030-social, economic, and political pillar noted that matters of youth, environment, land reform and reproductive health need to be addressed with urgency to avoid challenges in future and for Kenya to achieve its vision.

As a way forward the delegates agreed to engage communities in population issues by resolving to have similar conferences at county level. The conference came to a close with a commitment to take the message of rededication to the development of the evolving counties for which Kenyans are clearly proud to have.