Nairobi County Woman Representative Esther Passaris has addressed the backlash following her controversial comments about Kenya’s population growth and its impact on the country’s economic challenges.
Passaris’s remarks, made during an interview on K24 TV on Monday, July 22, 2024, attributed Kenya’s economic difficulties to overpopulation, sparking a heated debate.
“Life has become more expensive and is even more expensive to families for instance where there has been a failure on family planning. You see financial planning doesn’t just start with government, it starts with the poor family,” she said.
Passaris pointed to the financial struggles faced by large families, using the example of a woman with eight children who sought a bursary from her office.
“I recently gave bursaries and a mother came with her two children who live in Nairobi in Dagoretti South and the children go to school in Kajiado. And she said ‘my kids have been chased away from school, they are in secondary school, because I haven’t paid’.
“And she wasn’t amongst the beneficiaries. So I sent my team to her house to understand the issues around the family. There are eight children, eight… alright!” Passaris said.
The Nairobi Woman Rep stressed that the woman with eight children would have more problems because of her decision to have more children.
“That would be very difficult for that family. And then you come and say to the government you have failed me, you are chasing my children out of school, you are raising taxes which I can’t afford to pay, the cost of living, food, housing everything has become expensive. But you see that family is going to have more problems than the family that has two children or one child,” she remarked.
Passaris argued that the country’s high unemployment rate is exacerbated by its rapidly growing population.
“So I think we need to have a complete holistic look because when we talk about 67 per cent unemployed, is because the population has been growing so fast. It is the same situation we found ourselves when infrastructure was not available to sustain the population that we had and the cars that we had on the road,” she explained.
Criticism
Her comments drew criticism on social media, with one user on X, formerly Twitter, accusing her of racism.
“Call @EstherPassaris what she is. An anti-black racist. How dare she say that Africans are poor because they are having too many babies? Why is she a politician in an African country?” The tweet posted on July 25, 2024, reads.
In a rebuttal on Saturday, July 27, 2024, Passaris, who was born to a Greek father and a Kenyan Kikuyu mother, defended her heritage and dismissed the racism accusation.
“I really thought you were educated but because you are not, let me educate you. But before I do that, let me give you a piece of my mind. My mother’s lineage is black and I am proudly of black descent.
“My husband is black, my children dark chocolate and my granddaughter a black beauty. You are the racist not me.
“You see my skin colour and decide to turn it around. Twist my words of wisdom to drive a sick narrative. Shame on you,” Passaris wrote.
Family planning
Passaris elaborated on her stance, advocating for family planning as a means to improve economic conditions.
“Now an education on Family Planning:- Women who give birth every year, without good nutrition are not in a position to be productive and contribute to the families economic status.
“They tend to be a perpetual consumer of the scarce resources, either giving birth or sick from their situation. Both parents need to be economically productive to take care of their children.
“Population management is critical to social- economic growth even at the household level. Numbers matter because resources are limited. Social amenities like health services, education etc all need money to take care of individuals.
“At the household level a casual worker can either give his children porridge or beans and rice based on the mouths to feed, with the same income. Family Planning is not the same as birth control. FP is spacing children and getting the number one can support.
“Our fore fathers never went begging because they had many children. They also had a plan on how to support all their children. Currently, people are getting children and expecting someone else to support them for them.
“That is not even African because the parent has relegated on their responsibility with impunity. That would have attracted penalties in the old days. When I talk family planning I am impacting knowledge to my constituents on how family planning breaks the cycle of poverty and helps raise the dignity and well being of their families.”
NCPD
Additionally, Passaris called on the National Council for Population and Development (NCPD) to educate Kenyans on family planning.
“The @NCPD_Kenya I think you can take over and educate Kenyans on your mandate which is government funded. Especially those who hurl insults because they have nothing better to do with their time. God believed in Family Planning as seen in the ovulation cycle of the woman. I rest my case. Good Night,” she wrote.