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Family planning among blended Somali women in Nairobi City, Kenya.

ELIPHAS GITONGA, Kenyatta University

Globally, more than 60% of the refugees live in urban areas. In Kenya, majority of the refugees live in Nairobi city with Somali refugees making the largest proportion. The total fertility rate among Somali women is 6.4 compared to the national average of 3.9. They have low contraceptive prevalence rate. The reproductive health of urban refugees is vulnerable due to poor living conditions and prohibitive health policies. It is worsened by sexual violence and restricted access to family planning (FP) services. The consequence is repeat high risk pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and unsafe abortions. This study estimates the prevalence of contraceptive use among blended Somali women aged 15 -39 years, associated factors and utilization patterns between refugee and non-refugee women. The data source is 2021 household survey in Nairobi, East lands. Data analysis will be via descriptive statistics, multivariate logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression. Preliminary results indicate prevalence of FP utilization among Somali Women in a sample of 593, is 44% with most of them using injectable (38.7%) The FP uptake among the refugees is 42%. The decision to use FP is jointly done by the participant and the partners (49% of the users).

Keywords: Family planning and contraception, Refugees, Urbanization and urban populations

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session P9.