Lamu, KENYA: Lamu residents have been asked to plan their families so as to have small and easily manageable families.
County commissioner Joseph Kanyiri said the lack of family planning was the major reason why many people can’t take care of their families.
Speaking in Lamu on Monday, the county commissioner said many men take off leaving their wives and children once they discover they have too many children than they can take care off.
Kanyiri urged residents to embrace family planning saying it would save them the stresses and struggles of having to take care of a larger family when they don’t have the means to do so.
However, he warned that having many children shouldn’t be a reason for men to run away from their families.
“Once you refuse to plan your family and give birth to so many of them, you must stay there and take care of them. If you run away and leave them, again you are breaking the law and when we catch you, you won’t also like it. Family planning is for your own good. It will save you too much stress. Life is a bit easy when you have a smaller manageable family you know,” said Kanyiri.
Kanyiri asked parents to take their responsibilities seriously including sending their kids to school in order be able to save themselves from the high poverty levels surrounding many communities in Lamu.
He said it was unwise and shameful for any man to sire many children then fail to adequately provide for their needs.
“It beats logic that one can have up to ten children yet you cannot even feed of cloth one of them. You have to rely on bursaries from kindergarten up to high school or tertiary level. Your failure to plan your family now becomes another person’s burden, all you do is sire or give birth.It’s embarrassing and shameless,” he added.
The county commissioner called on all residents to cooperate with the government to ensure development agenda are brought to fruition.
