Family planning (FP) is one of the fundamental pillars of safe motherhood and a
reproductive health right. However, the Northern arid lands of Kenya, where Moyale
Sub- County lies, have continued to record low levels of family planning services uptake.
This situation has led to poor health outcomes among women, children and the general
population thus poor progress towards achievement of Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Consequently, this study set out to determine the modern contraceptive methods
used by the women,the level of unmet need for FP services, the total demand for FP
services and the influence of socio - demographic, economic and cultural factors on FP
uptake among the women. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive design.
Stratified two stage random sampling method was used to obtain a sample of 170
respondents who were drawn from women visiting health facilities in the sub-county.
Data was collected through interviews with randomly selected respondents, key
informants, and focused group discussions. Informed consent was sought from all
participants with confidentiality and privacy being maintained throughout the study. Data
analysis for the quantitative and qualitative data was carried out using computer
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Version 20) and content analysis
respectively. Chi-square was used to measure significant associations between
independent and dependent variables with P < 0.05. Binary logistic regression analysis
was used to determine the independent predictors and their contribution to FP uptake.
The findings from this study showed that the prevalence of contraceptive uptake is
54.7%. Close to half of the respondents 45.3% were not using any contraceptive method.
The total unmet demand for FP was found to be 24.8 % while the total demand for FP
was 79.8%. The significant predictors of FP uptake were experience of child loss (O.R=
0.183; p = 0.001), affiliation to Islamic religion (O.R = 4.036; P = 0.026), preferred
number of children (O.R = 0.380; P = 0.039), inter-spousal communication (O.R = 5.500;
P = 0.045), husbands education level (O.R = 7.598; P = 0.022), joint FP decision making
(O.R = 4.992; P = 0.020) and social group approval (O.R = 4.495; P = 0.001).This study
recommends creation of awareness and advocacy on benefits of smaller family sizes in
the Sub-county, improved access to at least secondary education in the general
population, FP campaigns and outreaches at the rural communities and women who have
experience of child loss, formation of FP advocacy social groups and utilization of
existing social groups for channeling FP messages to the community. The study further
recommends strengthening and mainstreaming of male involvement and religious leaders
participation in FP interventions and initiation of a communication program that
explicitly promotes inter-spousal communication.