Photo courtesy UN Women in Africa

Some encouraging news on women and health in Kenya.

The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022 Key Indicators Report, published this week, reveals that Kenya has made significant progress in improving access to high quality healthcare leading in turn to a reduction in the number of maternal deaths and a fall in the infant mortality rates.

The report found that Kenyans are also increasingly accessing reproductive health services and that maternal deaths fell from 362 per 100,000 live births, to 355 per 100,000 live births over a five -month period (February 17 to July 19, 2022) during which data was collected.

Falling Infant Mortality

Covering a longer period, the report showed that infant mortality had fallen from 39 percent of live births in 2014 to 22 percent in 2022.

Perhaps not surprisingly the report recorded a rise in the use of modern contraceptives from 53 percent in 2014 to 57 percent in 2022.

The Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022 was undertaken by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) together with the Ministry of Health.

For a full copy of the ‘Key Indicators’ report download here.