Kenya is unlikely to meet the global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing maternal deaths to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030, according to a new United Nations report.
The report, Trends in Maternal Mortality Estimates 2000 to 2023, shows that Kenya remains off track to meeting the SDG target for maternal mortality, despite notable improvements over the past two decades.
Since 2000, Kenya has made progress in improving maternal health, with the maternal mortality ratio falling from 445 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 379 in 2023, an overall reduction of 15 percent.
However, the report says these figures are still alarmingly high, with approximately 5,700 maternal deaths recorded in 2023, placing Kenya among the countries with the highest maternal mortality ratios in sub-Saharan Africa.
"While this report shows glimmers of hope, the data also highlights how dangerous pregnancy still is in much of the world today - despite the existence of solutions to prevent and treat the complications that cause the vast majority of maternal deaths," said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The SDG target for maternal health is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.
To meet this benchmark, countries need to achieve an average annual reduction rate (ARR) of around 15 percent.
However, Kenya's progress has been erratic. Between 2000 and 2015, the country made virtually no progress, with an ARR of zero percent.
Since 2016, the ARR has improved to two percent annually, indicating more robust efforts. However, the slow pace of reduction in earlier years means that Kenya has a lot of ground to cover in a short period.
Several challenges continue to hinder Kenya's progress towards achieving the SDG target, including limited access to quality health care.
In many rural areas, there is a lack of skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric services, and essential health facilities, which affects the ability to manage complications during childbirth.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), around 45 percent of rural births still take place without a skilled birth attendant, compared to only 10 percent in urban areas.
In addition, maternal health programmes often suffer from inadequate funding, which limits their reach, quality and ability to scale up.
The WHO estimates that only 50 percent of health facilities in Kenya are adequately equipped to handle maternal and newborn emergencies.
"Access to quality maternal health services is a right, not a privilege, and we all have an urgent responsibility to build well-resourced health systems that protect the lives of every pregnant woman and newborn. By strengthening supply chains, the midwifery workforce, and the disaggregated data needed to identify those most at risk, we can and must end the tragedy of preventable maternal deaths and their enormous toll on families and societies," said Dr Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
