A Health Research by national government has shown uneducated rural women are more fertile and likely to give birth to more children than their urban ‘career types’. Per 1000 women in ages 20-24, rural women have 248 births compared to 164 by urban women.
“Kenyan women living in rural areas bear more children than those living in urban areas. Women in lower socio-economic strata bear more children than their wealthier counterparts; women from households in the lowest wealth quantile have a total fertility rate that is more than twice than women from highest quantile. Similarly women with no education have a TFR more than twice that with a secondary or higher level education,” the report reveals.
Even more numbing is the revelations that women in arid and semi arid areas are more likely to give birth to more children than those in comfort zones.
Wajir county has the highest TFR (Total Fertility Rate) at 7.8, followed by West Pokot at 7.2, Turkana at 6.9 and Samburu at 6.3, all of them the arid and semi-arid parts of northern Kenya while Mt. Kenya counties of Nyeri, Kiambu and Kirinyaga have the lowest fertility rates at less than 2.5. City County of Nairobi is also not better, with TFR of 2.7.
On the tribal math, Central Kenya is likely to face challenges clinging to their ‘plastic’ tyranny of numbers – many people believe the government cooks population data for elections purposes – as fertility drops drastically in that region.
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