By Gift Briton
As Kenya marked World Contraception Day, the government is turning to private pharmacies as a new route to help close the remaining gaps in family planning access.
Over the past five years, about 650 of the country’s 8,000 registered private pharmacies have been trained and accredited by the Ministry of Health to provide quality family planning services.
The expansion comes as Kenya seeks to cut unmet need for the service from current 14 per cent to 10 per cent by 2030.
“The issue of access in terms of physical distance and convenience is one of the key barriers to family planning uptake that community pharmacies can help address,” said Hambule Mohamed, a program officer in the Ministry of Health’s Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, during the celebration of World Contraception Day 2026 in Nairobi.
World Contraception Day, observed globally on September 26, raises awareness of contraception, family planning and reproductive health. In Kenya, this year’s observance comes as the country pushes to meet its Family Planning 2030 commitments.
Kenya has made progress in expanding access to contraception, Mohamed said, but significant barriers remain. They include cultural and religious beliefs, myths and misconceptions about contraception, limited involvement of men and the physical distance to health facilities.
According to him, many women still have limited autonomy over family planning decisions, while misinformation continues to shape attitudes towards contraceptive methods.
“A pharmacy cannot address all of those barriers. But the Ministry sees it as one way of bringing services closer to people who might otherwise struggle to reach them,” added Mohamed.
The experience of Dr. Susan Njogu, one of the pharmacists trained to provide family planning services, shows how the community pharmacy approach works on the ground.
Many of her clients first walk into the pharmacy seeking emergency pills. Instead of simply dispensing the pills, Dr. Njogu says she enquires whether they have used contraception before and whether they would like to consider other long-term options instead of emergency pills.
“You find that 98 per cent of the time, most of them want a longer-term option. It is just that they don’t know what options are available to them. So we sit them down and first understand what information they have, what they have used before, and what they are looking for. From there, we can counsel them on the options available and, with their agreement, help them choose what works best for them,” said Dr. Njogu.
She received her family planning training three years ago. It involved one week of physical training followed by another week of practical work at a health facility, where she learnt and practiced the administration of family planning methods under supervision.
The training changed how she viewed the role of her pharmacy.
“Before the training, it was hard to make clients understand that the pharmacy is not only about selling and dispensing. The training gave me the confidence and patience to spend more time with clients,” she said.
“When a family planning client walks in, it is not just over the counter. You have to sit in a safe space, take time and hear them out.”
For Njogu, that private space is essential. A busy pharmacy can have a steady flow of customers, but family planning conversations often involve questions that clients may not want to discuss within earshot of other people.
Even during peak hours, she prioritises the quality of the consultation. If the pharmacy is busy, clients may have to wait, but she does not rush the conversation simply to clear the queue.
“For us, consultation with a patient is non-negotiable, whether I am working alone or with a colleague. Everyone deserves quality time. If you cannot wait for your colleague to have quality time with a doctor, why would you want the doctor to spend more time with you?” she posed.
The requirement for a private counselling room is part of the safeguards the Ministry of Health puts in place before a pharmacy can offer family planning services.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technologists undergo prescribed training, receive technical support and have to demonstrate competency. And accreditation is being done gradually rather than allowing all registered pharmacies to immediately offer family planning services.
“We are not opening the door for every pharmacy to offer family planning services. We are actually doing it in a phased approach so that quality is maintained,” said Mohamed.
The training is currently provided without a fee to participating pharmacies. The Ministry coordinates and approves the curriculum and works with partners and county health teams to deliver it. Mohamed said the training has also been made available online, and it could attract a fee in future for people who want to take the course.
The Ministry is also working to train more pharmacists and pharmacy technologists, with funding secured through the Global Fund through the Government of Kenya.
At Dr. Njogu’s pharmacy, clients can access several short-term family planning options. These include condoms, combined oral contraceptive pills, progestin-only pills, injectable contraceptives and emergency contraception. Clients can also receive the three-month DMPA-SC injection and, where appropriate, learn how to self-administer it.
Long-term methods such as implants, Jadelle and intrauterine contraceptive devices are handled through linked health facilities.
The distinction matters because the pharmacy model is not intended to replace health facilities. Instead, it adds another point where clients can receive information and some services, while those requiring procedures or methods outside the pharmacy’s scope can be directed to facilities equipped to provide them.
Clients can also see evidence that a pharmacy has been authorised to provide the services. Dr. Njogu displays the certification she received through the training, alongside contraceptive posters. Word of mouth has also become important as clients who have used the service recommend it to others.
For Phelista Mutsi, a 25-year-old family planning champion who lives in Kibera, those details can make a difference to whether a young person seeks care.
Mutsi became a mother four years ago and says privacy is one of the reasons a young person may choose a community pharmacy over a public health facility.
“Most pharmacies have private safe counselling rooms where nobody will judge me,” said Mutsi.
She adds that some young people fear being judged at public facilities or being asked personal questions they are uncomfortable answering in front of others.
Distance can also be a barrier. If a health facility is far away and a person cannot afford transport, Mutsi said, they may simply give up. A nearby pharmacy provides another option for those who can afford to pay for the service.
According to her, trust does not come simply from having a private room.
Mutsi says that she is more likely to return to a provider who welcomes her without judgement, explains the available methods clearly and prepares them for possible side effects. For her, a good provider builds a relationship that makes it easier for a client to come back with questions or concerns.
Her own experience with an unplanned pregnancy influenced her decision to become involved in family planning. She wanted to give herself time to recover, space between pregnancies and the ability to decide when she was ready for another child.
She later became a family planning champion after seeing a friend become a mother at 19 while already caring for three children.
Today, her work involves engaging young people in Kibera through age-specific sessions, comprehensive sexuality education and conversations about pregnancy and contraception. She also helps connect people to services and works to challenge myths and misconceptions that can discourage young people from seeking family planning.
“Clients who cannot afford private services can still access family planning through public health facilities, where services are provided free of charge. Private pharmacies provide another option for people who are willing to pay for convenience and proximity,” Mohamed said.
He described this as a “total market approach”, with the public and private sectors serving different needs.
“Previously we left the pharmacies to do their own business of dispensing, but now we are bringing them in to think about service delivery,” Mohamed said.
Family planning is the first programme to take this approach at scale, he said, while other health programmes including HIV, tuberculosis and malaria are also looking at how pharmacies can contribute to service delivery.
For Rose Nzyoka, Country Director at inSupplyHealth Kenya, the question is ultimately whether services are reaching women and girls through channels that fit their lives.
“Kenya has made important progress in family planning, but we have to continue to ask whether we are really reaching women and girls of reproductive age where they actually are and through channels that work for them,” she said during the event.
Dr. Njogu notes that the training has expanded the services she can provide, but it has also changed the relationship between her pharmacy and the people who come through its doors.
She says clients now approach the pharmacy with concerns beyond dispensing medicines, knowing they can receive counselling, basic checks or help finding the right health service when an issue falls outside her scope.
“Financially it has opened doors for us. It has created more income in the contraceptive space, and it has opened up a wider space with the other services that have come because of the private space and the linkages we now have. Generally, it has broadened my scope of work. It is a win for me,” said Dr. Njogu.
