Population change among the maasai

Tropical Africa's annual population growth rates have varied between 2.5 and 3.0 percent over the past three decades. Amidst these high rates are areas with much slower growth and depressed fertility (Adadevoh, 1974).The record total fertility rate varies from 2 or 5 children for such areas compared to 6 to 9 children in the fertility regions (Doenges and Newman, 1989). However, the problem of subfertility and involuntary infertility is suspected to be far more widespread (Adadevoh, 1974:3) Data are not available to allow a generalized statement. Despite the existence of these significant subfertility and infertility problems, inordinate attention by both scholars and the mass media has gone into the phenomenon of high fertility and population growth rates. Yet, it is clear that, once the impediments have been removed from the peoples and areas experiencing lower completed fertility, there will be population booms and busts. These will increase rather than reduce fertility. The ultimate consequence will likely negate the purpose and effects of various population planning programmes currently going on in various countries. Kenya is an example of a country with a relatively high population growth rate averaging some 3.8 percent per year in 1990. National level data show that the total fertility rate is consistently above 6.5. The TFR has varied over time from 6.8 in 1962 to 7.6 in 1969 and to 7.9 (Kenya, 1983a). The recent Kenya demographic and health survey conducted between December 1988 shows a TFR of 6.7 , reflecting some decline in TFR (Kenya, 1989a). Kenya's rapid population growth rate is a consequence of an increasing fertility rate as well as declining mortality. However, the national fertility and population growth picture tends to conceal large geographic areas of the country with relatively low growth and completed fertility. Nomadic pastoral people of Kenya, of whom the Maasai are an example, appear to record an annual population