Awareness of community-led total sanitation and its impact on sanitation among residents of Kilifi and Marsabit Counties, Kenya

Background: Community-based strategy known as community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is frequently employed to address open defecation and the health issues it causes. Inadequate sanitation is one of the biggest health and environmental problems in the world, contributing to approximately 775,000 deaths per year. This study aimed to assess the level of awareness of community-led total sanitation (CLTS) and its impact on sanitation among communities in Kilifi and Marsabit Counties in Kenya. Methods: The study adopted a comparative study design. Purposive and multistage sampling were used to recruit study respondents in this study. Fischer's formula was used to determine the sample size for this investigation where 811 study participants were enlisted for the research. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to estimate the impact of CLTS intervention on sanitation status. A significance level of 0.05 was employed as the threshold for all tests conducted in this study. Results: From this study, Among those fully conversant with CLTS, 98% resided in Kilifi County; 77% in Marsabit were fully aware of CLTS. The majority(87.7%) of the study respondents were fully aware of CLTS. Despite CLTS intervention resulting in a 42% increase in households owning a sanitation facility, There was no significant statistical association between CLTS intervention and sanitation status (t=0.42, p=0.0835). Conclusion: The study established that the level of awareness of CLTS in both counties was high. The results from this study demonstrated that CLTS intervention programs had an impact on sanitation levels in Kilifi and Marsabit counties.