The effectiveness of Egesa fm in the uptake of family planning by women in Kisii county: an overview

Abstract

In this study, the researcher‟s objective was to establish the effectiveness of Egesa FM in uptake of family planning in Kisii County. The researcher sought to establish which programmes aired by Egesa FM are geared towards promoting family planning in Kisii County and also determine the impact of the messages in promoting family planning in Kisii County. The background of the study highlights the history of family planning in Kenya. It details cases where media has been successful in promoting family planning I.e. Jamaica, Egypt, Rwanda, Malawi etc. It also discusses use of media in social change and narrows to use of radio as a tool in promoting family planning campaigns. The problem statement in the study argues that despite the highest accessibility to media and radio in particular at 75% among the Kisii people, reproduction rates are high. The study was guided by the two step flow theory, Cognitive Dissonance theory and the Uses and Gratifications theory. The uses and gratification theory explains how the Kisii women of reproductive age choose and consume media programs based on their individual needs that they seek to gratify. The Cognitive Dissonance explains how Kisii women upon receiving family planning messages, make decisions to adopt or reject the messages. The study was conducted among reproductive age women (15-49 years) of Kisii County. The target population was convenient in terms of accessibility to citizens of different levels of income representing diverse population across the four sub counties of Kisii County. The County was ranked seventh among the highly populated counties in Kenya. The study used quantitative methods to collect data from the women of Kisii County.