Fertility And household poverty in Kenya: a comparative analysis of western and coast regions

George O. Odwe, University of Nairobi
Anne Khasakhala, University of Nairobi
Alfred Otieno Agwanda, University of Nairobi

This paper examines fertility changes in Western and Coast Regions over a 20-year period (1988-2011) using KDHS data for Western and Coast regions supplemented with qualitative data. Initially, the fertility level was very high in Western and relatively low in Coast. A substantial decline followed by a stall took place in Western, while in Coast only a modest decline has taken place. Multivariate Poisson regression analysis shows that poverty and child mortality were reinforcing forces pushing fertility up while qualitative data shows that the poor perceive no link between poverty and the number of children in a family. The stall in fertility is associated with reproductive behaviour of the poor, while fertility decline has taken place among nonpoor during the period of the study. Based on the result, we recommend that population policies and programmes should emphasis more on the health benefits of birth spacing and reproductive health rights