Teen Network Magazine january issue | Page 6

Following the commitment pledge, the government has worked hard to promote and improve the access to family planning to meet the goals set, that is to have a reduced number of teenage pregnancy from 18 %- 12 % by 2020, disbursement of free condoms at specific places mostly being institutions. It has also worked on reducing the prices of contraceptives for family planning reasons, the prices I believe are friendly to people, oral contraceptives go for not more than Ksh. 50, Inject able contraceptive that can last for 1-3 months go for not more than Ksh. 100, implants that can last up to 5 years go for Ksh. 500 favoring the low income earners in the society. Kenyans are advised to get a number of children they can manage, considering that the country ' s economy.
Despite all this there happen to be inequalities in getting health services among the people this are based on socioeconomic status, educational level, age, ethnicity, religious background and the resources around the environment. This is just like any other service that is offered, the better off you are in a community the higher and better your chances of getting satisfactory services. Places that are least developed for instance the interior parts of Kenya like Isiolo, Garissa, Moyale, Marsabit, Tana River, Lamu, Turkana, Pokot and many others. The people in these areas have little or no education; they therefore will have little involvement in reproductive health issues, they see it at as something that is done in Western cultures.
Most are so traditional and cultured that they can ' t talk openly about issues relating to sex. They also believe that God wants them to have as many children as possible; taming such, proves to be a problem. This places lack access to proper health facilities. Most cases on maternal and child mortality are from these areas, the mothers do not get to attend clinics during pregnancies, they do home deliveries increasing the risk of losing lives in cases of complications. Much has been done to rectify this say for instance the Beyond Zero Campaign by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta that has helped a lot of mothers and children, the program has a hand in the drop of new mother to child HIV infections by 50 % since 2013 that is from 12000 to 6600 it created awareness and helped solve many maternal and child HIV infections and mortality in Kenya.