Birth Control and Reproduction in the Kikuyu Society: The Case from Murang'a Distrinct in Kenya

Abstract

This paper studies the reproduction of the Kikuyu people and Family Planning Program in Kenya. Since the middle of the 1980's, the number of children in a Kikuyu household has decreased and the rate of contraceptive acceptance has risen. This was explained by examining the problem of land shortage in the Kikuyu area and the cultural and social change which discouraged the people from having many children. Literature of the fertility theories has it that modernization leads to fewer children. The Kikuyu way of interpretation and choice in family planning is an important key to understand their concept of reproduction and birth control.