Fifteen per cent of girls and women in Kenya aged between 15 and 19 have ever been pregnant, with 12 percent have had alive birth, one per cent have had a pregnancy loss while three percent are currently pregnant according to data from the demographic survey report.
According to the ‘Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022 Key Indicators Report’ Samburu County is leading with teenage pregnancies at 50 per cent of women within the age 15-19 having ever been pregnant.
Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), released the seventh Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022 conducted between February 17 to July 13 last year among females aged 15 to 49 and males 15 to 54 years.
Other counties with the highest rates include West Pokot at 36 per cent, Marsabit 29 percent, Narok 28 percent and Meru 24 percent.
Homa Bay and Migori have 23 per cent while Kajiado, Siaya and Baringo recorded 22, 21 and 20 per cent respectively.
Kirinyaga and Murang’a with seven per cent each and Kitui, Bomet and Nairobi with nine per cent each.
Counties with the lowest percentage include Nyeri and Nyandarua with five per cent.
The percentage of women age 15–19 who have ever been pregnant increases with age, from three percent among those age 15 to 31 percent among those age 19.
Teenage women in the lowest wealth quintile are more likely to have ever been pregnant than women in the highest wealth quintile. The percentage of women who have ever been pregnant decreases from 21 percent among those in the lowest wealth quintile to eight percent among those in the highest wealth quintile.
According to reproductive health experts’ teenage girls are twice more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth compared to women in twenties because it is associated with several complications such as preterm labor, intrauterine growth retardation, low birth weight19, neonatal death, obstructed labor, fistula, and eclampsia.
The most commonly reported predictors of teenage pregnancy are low socioeconomic status and educational level, lack of knowledge of sexuality, ineffective use of modern contraceptives, cultural obedience, and peer influence, not communicating with parents on reproductive health issues, early sexual initiation and early marriage.
