The number of people seeking modern birth control procedures in Kenya dropped by approximately 11 percent between 2024 and 2025, marking one of the sharpest single-year contractions in the country’s family planning programme in recent years.
Official data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that approximately 5.4 million people went for various modern contraceptive methods in 2025, down from 6.1 million recorded the previous year, representing a loss of nearly 700,000 users across all categories combined.
Modern contraceptives are medical methods used to prevent unintended pregnancies, and they are a cornerstone of reproductive health services globally.
These range from short-term options, such as condoms and oral pills, to long-acting reversible methods, such as implants and intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUCDs), as well as permanent solutions, such as bilateral tubal ligation (BTL) and vasectomy.
Access to these methods is essential for individual reproductive choices, as well as for reducing maternal mortality, improving child health outcomes, and supporting broader socioeconomic development.
Family planning injections, the most widely used method, saw new clients fall by around 11 percent, from approximately 693,000 to 618,000, while revisits dropped by about nine percent, from 2.6 million to 2.3 million.
Combined oral contraceptive pills saw the worst decline, with new clients falling by almost 30 percent, from around 294,000 to 206,000, in one year alone. Revisit numbers for this method also fell, by around 23 percent, from approximately 499,000 to 386,000, suggesting that repeat users are disengaging from the programme too.
“During the review period, most methods recorded declines, with uptake of FP injections declining by 10.9 percent in new clients and 8.6 percent for revisits. The uptake of combined oral contraceptive pills declined by 29.9 percent for new clients and 22.7 percent for revisits,’ the Economic Survey 2026 said.
‘Implants declined by three percent for new clients, while revisits increased by 2.4 percent. Progestin-only pills and sterilisation (BTL) also declined by 15 percent and 13.9 percent, respectively, for new clients, whereas vasectomy recorded a growth of 9.2 percent in 2025,’ it added.
These declines coincided with the suspension of US foreign assistance in early 2025, which cut off a significant source of funding for contraceptive procurement and frontline health facility operations. The USAid had long been one of Kenya’s largest bilateral donors in reproductive health, and its withdrawal left visible gaps across the supply chain.
A government report projected that the loss of donor support could leave over 6.2 million people without access to family planning services in 2025. This could lead to increased unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortions, rising maternal deaths, and a decline in the contraceptive prevalence rate.
The number of implant insertions, which peaked at around 714,000 new clients in 2024, declined by three percent to approximately 692,000 in 2025. Progestin-only pill use among new clients dropped by around 15 percent, from approximately 120,000 to 102,000, while IUCD insertions declined marginally by about 3 percent. Sterilisation through BTL fell by almost 14 percent.
Meanwhile, male condom distribution fell by around 20 percent, from approximately 638,000 to 510,000 users. Female condom uptake also declined, by around 35 percent, shrinking from roughly 26,000 to just 17,000 users. This raises concerns over reduced dual protection against both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.