Two recent news stories about Kenya have turned international attention to the changing African family. The most far-reaching of these news items was the September 1989 announcement that fertility transition had begun in Kenya (N.Y. Times International 1989). This much-anticipated announcement was based on data from the 1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) which indicated that, for the second time in ten years, Kenyan fertility had declined and contraceptive use had increased (NCPD 1989; van de Walle and Foster 1990). The KDHS presented reliable evidence of “the first significant decline in fertility in Africa ever,” corroborating other data showing that Kenya, Botswana, and Zimbabwe are the first three African nations to move toward lower fertility. Authors comparing DHS data from eleven African countries focused on women's education and relative economic stability as factors that might explain the trend:

The other major news story from Kenya, ultimately less important but perhaps more revealing of the internal dynamics of Kenyan society, gained international attention in August, 1991.