Leaders in Kitui County have welcomed the release of last year’s Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) and noted that the survey data will guide the planning of development projects in the county.
The county leaders further said that the survey findings will help with the much-needed data to get concrete solutions to numerous teething problems from different sectors that require the same in order to be resolved.
Stakeholders drawn from both national and county governments and other development partners, including community leaders and religious institutions, among others, were speaking at a forum convened in Kitui town by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) to disseminate the survey findings at the county level.
The 2022 KDHS data, jointly carried out by KNBS and the Ministry of Health, is aimed at providing up-to-date estimates of demographic and health indicators to guide in planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation on population and health-related programmes at both the national and county levels.
Kitui County Executive for Planning, Mr. Victor Mwangu, while speaking during the forum, commended the survey findings, saying that the survey contains much data needed to guide the county government in its planning, implementation, and monitoring of development projects done across the vast county.
“Now that the survey findings have been availed to us, we are now able to clearly identify which development projects are people’s priorities in their respective areas. Also, we will use these survey findings when providing solutions to problems affecting our local communities,” said the county government minister.
According to the survey findings, Kitui County has areas where the county is doing poorly compared to national data. Similarly, there are also sectors where the county is performing well compared to other counties in the country.
The survey findings also revealed that the county residents are facing serious water shortages, with a high number of families depending on water for domestic use from unsafe sources. Also, the data highlights the high numbers of county residents depending on firewood as their main source of fuel for cooking.
The survey findings further revealed that the county residents do not have nets to protect them against mosquitoes and therefore are regularly exposed to malaria infection. With low numbers of residents using mosquito nets, the survey also reveals high rates of infant mortality, especially among children under five years of age.
Despite the county scoring high on women using family planning methods, it also has a high fertility rate compared to the national fertility rate of 3.4.
However, the county has some sectors where it is performing great, like having high numbers of households with at least one basic sanitation facility, hence scoring 50 per cent against the national score of 41 per cent.
The survey findings still reveal that high numbers of women aged between 15 – 49 visit health facilities for either personal or antenatal checks, compared to other counties across the country.
The survey findings on Gender Based Violence and level of education in Kitui County have performed fairly compared to the overall national data.
Speaking during the forum, Kitui County Statistics Officer, Mr. Samuel Leparsaiya, lamented the longtime absence of survey data, disclosing that the last survey findings of this nature were done in the year 2015.
“With the release of these survey findings, national and county governments and other development partners and institutions have updated data to use as they plan to implement and evaluate the objectives of development projects,” said the County Statistics Officer.
By Denson Mututo
