Member of Parliament for Mathioya, Edwin Mugo, has launched a project to reward every pregnant woman in his constituency with Ksh 5,000 as an incentive to emphasize the importance of childbirth.
Mr. Mugo stated that the joy of leaders is to see children increasing, ensuring “the assurance of tomorrow’s generation.”
While in the Kamacharia ward on Wednesday during a ceremony to provide funding for food distribution to the disabled and other vulnerable individuals in the grassroots, Mr. Mugo said his leadership would focus on various interests, including those related to reproduction rates in the community.
In this regard, he mentioned that even those who have given birth in the past six months would receive a token of Ksh 1,000 each to encourage them to desire childbirth again.
During the event, the MP arranged pregnant women in queues and handed them bundles of money, while others with children under seven months were allocated their own queue.
This is not the first time such incentives have been offered. MP for Maragua, Mary Wa Maua, has been providing Ksh 1,000 as a gift to expectant mothers. Similarly, Murang’a Governor Irungu Kang’ata set aside county budgets to provide pregnant women with a financial boost of Ksh 6,000 each.
However, some experts criticize these initiatives, likening them to bribery and warning against encouraging women to seek pregnancy solely for monetary gain.
According to reproductive health expert Lucy Kamau, it is essential for residents to understand that having a child is a lifelong commitment that requires significant resources, and the amounts provided may be misused or exploited, leading to early pregnancies.
Kamau emphasized the need for families to have children they can adequately support, warning against a scenario where poor families become dependent on richer ones for sustenance, inadvertently serving the political interests of politicians in exchange for votes.
She lamented the mindset that encourages poor people to have more children, perpetuated even by elders who believe that the Kikuyu population should remain higher than other communities.
