Stakeholders in Garissa county have been urged to sustain their campaign to rid the region of retrogressive cultural practices that hinder women's empowerment.
The director general of the National Council for Population and Development Dr Mohamed Abey said early marriages, gender-based violence and teenage pregnancy remained the biggest obstacles facing young girls and women.
He said the backward cultural practices have continuously denied them opportunities such as education that could better their lives.
Abey spoke in Garissa during the dissemination of Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2023 on population and development that was developed through intensive consultation with stakeholders.
Its aim is to provide policy directions on the management of population and development issues in the country so as to improve the quality of life of Kenyans.
Abey said there was a need to continuously educate the population on why harmful cultural practices will lock out the women in the region from accessing opportunities provided by the government to empower them.
He said northern Kenya has different population dynamics from other parts of the country.
“In Garissa, you have more children compared to the elderly population. And it’s a growing population. Also there is a growing population moving to urban settlements. Some people are changing the pastoralist lifestyle to urban settlements," he said.
“The poverty level here is very high, with more than 60 per cent below the poverty line. Dependency ratio is also a very big issue. Matters to do with maternal mortality are also quite high,"he added.
He said population dynamics are governed by the changing population size and age structure through changes in mortality, fertility, and migration. These three fundamental factors are closely tied to development.
Garissa county commissioner Mohamed Mwabudzo while reiterating that population issues are central to economic development regretted that the large population of young persons has been largely viewed as a problem, rather than an opportunity to spur Kenya’s socio-economic development. He called for a change of mindset.
“Our greatest resource as a country is population. However, it is one thing having a resource and making good use of it is another thing,” Mwabudzo said.
He said the path towards a more sustainable future requires proper population planning that involves anticipating the nature and consequences of major population shifts before and as they occur by adopting forward-looking and proactive planning guided by timely data.
The county commissioner took issue with the poor planning of Garissa town, saying for a town to grow it needs proper planning.
Abdishukri Jelle from Muslims for Human Rights challenged NCPD to stop focusing on demographic trends and also address specific issues such as abductions, enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings.
These issues, he said, can have profound impacts on the population and the economy including psychological trauma, loss of workforce and destabilisation of communities.
“Highlighting these aspects in national policies could lead to more comprehensive strategies for addressing the underlying causes and effects of such human rights violations. It might also encourage more robust data collection, support for the affected families and international collaboration to prevent and respond to these serious issues,” he said.