Sunday, June 24, 2012

If you are looking for Mr Right, Kisumu’s the place


If you are looking for Mr Right, Kisumu’s the place

  SHARE BOOKMARKPRINTEMAILRATING
A customer at the pharmacy of The Aga khan Hospital during the official opening in Kakamega. Condoms are expensive in Kakamega
Photo | FILE | NATION A customer at the pharmacy of The Aga khan Hospital during the official opening in Kakamega. Condoms are expensive in Kakamega 
By GATONYE GATHURA gathura@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, June 24  2012 at  20:33
Machakos is the most expensive town in which to plan a family, while Kisumu has the highest number of eligible bachelors, according to the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
A woman looking for an injectable, the most popular family planning method in Kenya, will get it at Sh157 in Machakos double what it costs in Nairobi.
At the same time Nairobi offers the best bargain for all types of family planning pills at about Sh45 while the same cost more than three times in Machakos.
However, the study which was released last week and compares family planning trends in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Machakos and Kakamega, shows Kisumu to have the best bargains for condoms which go for a higher price in Kakamega.
While implants were found to be the most expensive method across the four towns, it was most expensive in Machakos at almost Sh1,000 and lowest in Kakamega at Sh336.
The extensive survey intimates that the higher price paid by Machakos residents is worth it with the town having the least number of underage pregnancies.
“Generally there is a worrying amount of early child bearing girls between 15 and 19 in all the towns but with Kisumu leading while Machakos has the least,” says the survey.
The researchers including experts from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics found Kisumu to have the highest number of men who have never married, while at the same time majority of its marriageable women had already been taken.
Share This Story
Share 
“All men in Kisumu had a notably higher rate of never having been married than any other group, while only 27 per cent of women in the town reported the same.”
Majority of the women are reported to have indicated that they are married or living with a partner.
Older age
The five towns are in many characteristics as different as they are apart in distances with, for example, men in Kisumu marrying at an older age than males in the other towns.
Kisumu was found to have a much younger population of men that is marrying later than their counterparts in the other towns.
“While men in Kisumu tend to marry later, they nonetheless have as many children as, and sometimes more than men in the cities surveyed.”
Apart from Mombasa, the knowledge and use of various family planning methods were found to be generally high, with injectables and the male condom scoring very highly in all towns.
Surprisingly knowledge on all family planning methods was found to be highest about the male condoms even among women.
The baseline survey carried out for the Kenya Urban Reproductive Initiative called Tupange, traced serious incidences of stockouts especially for the two most popular family planning methods — the male condom and injectables.
The researchers were also worried that the emergency pill or Plan B was also experiencing high incidences of stockouts especially in private pharmacies, making nonsense of its emergency needs.
The researchers were also worried that the emergency pill or Plan B was also experiencing high incidences of stockouts especially in private pharmacies, making nonsense of its emergency needs.
“Injectables were the most stoked-out commodity in the past one year in both the public and private facilities followed by condoms, while 25 per cent of private facilities reported high stockout for emergency pills.”
Apart from Mombasa, where women indicated they would need permission to use a family planning method, females in the other towns are not hindered by such a barrier, nor were they hindered by their religion.

No comments:

Post a Comment