The contentious topic of abortion in Kenya was revisited this week during events to mark African Women’s Health and Rights Day.
The procedure is currently banned in the East African country. However, women’s groups are urging the government to open a debate on this policy.
”We appreciate and respect the divergent views and opinions on abortion. However, we are concerned by the rate of deaths caused by abortion in the back street,” remarked Leah Nyambura of Sisters Beyond Boundaries, a group that lobbies for women’s reproductive rights.
”We therefore urge the government to either come up with a stand on this or do something about the dying women,” she added.
Statistics from Kenya’s Ministry of Health indicate that 700 abortions are performed every day in the country on girls aged between 15 and 19. About 5 000 women die annually from complications related to the procedure.
But, the government insists that it is not disregarding the plight of these women. Josephine Kibaru, who heads the Health Ministry’s reproductive health division, says post-abortion services are available at clinics and hospitals.
”We have [brought] these services closer to the people. We have equipped our nurses to handle complications arising from abortion so that the woman does not die from excessive bleeding,” she said.
Calls to legalise abortion began gaining momentum last year when women parliamentarians called for a change in policy, on the grounds that women should be free to make decisions about their reproductive health. These utterances elicited fury on the part of religious leaders.
Recently, Water Resources Minister Martha Karua also stepped into the fray. Speaking at a forum to monitor improvements in the situation of women since the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in the Chinese capital of Beijing a decade ago, she noted: ”Abortion should be legalised. Do you want to have more kids running in the streets without food? When this happens, it is murder most foul.”
This year will also mark a decade since the UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) was held in Cairo, Egypt.
”Ten years after ICPD, male dominance and power, coupled with female submissiveness and ignorance of their human and reproductive rights, continue to frustrate the efforts being made towards the empowerment of women,” said Joyce Muchewa of the Coalition on Violence against Women, based in Nairobi.
The Cairo gathering produced a plan of action that was adopted by 179 countries. Among other things, the programme committed nations to work towards guaranteeing access to reproductive health services for all by 2015. The need for women to be educated about their reproductive rights and choices, particularly regarding contraception, was also hotly debated.
”Information and education on these issues should not only be confined to hospitals and health facilities, but should be made available at community level,” Josephine Ojiambo, chairperson of the Kenya Women Medical Association, said in a telephone interview.
”Contraceptives should also be made easily accessible here,” she added.
Leah Nyambura agrees. She says contraceptives need to be available —and affordable — even in the remotest parts of Kenya: ”For instance, the female condom is currently out of reach for the ordinary Kenyan woman as compared to the male condom.” (The average price of a pack of three female condoms is almost $3, compared with less than $1 for a pack of male condoms.)
Once again, the government defends its record: ”We have made sure that all contraceptives such as pills [and] condoms are available,” says the Health Ministry’s Kibaru. — IPS
Meanwhile, reports Jeevan Vasagar, a Kenyan villager has been arrested for killing his grandson, an Aids orphan, in what he told police was ”an act of kindness”.
Joseph Gitari (53) said he killed the seven-year-old boy because he suspected the child had HIV. The boy’s mother had died of Aids-related complications.
Police arrested Gitari, from Gatitu in central Kenya, after he confessed to slitting the boy’s throat with a kitchen knife.
A police spokesperson said: ”The grandfather assumed the boy would be suffering from Aids as his mother died from the same disease, and decided to end the boy’s life by slitting his throat.” — Â