Calls for Kenyan officials to clamp down on abortion were sounded anew last week, during a requiem mass for 15 aborted foetuses discovered near a river in the capital, Nairobi.
Even as authorities clamour to assure the public that they are taking steps to prevent a repeat of this situation, a question mark is hanging over why the government has failed to enforce anti-abortion laws to date.
At least one report indicates that President Mwai Kibaki’s administration has been paralysed by the competing demands of pro-lifers and groups that favour including abortion in the range of family-planning alternatives that should be offered to Kenyan women. The result of this seems to have been the creation of a grey area where the activities of abortionists are neither effectively prosecuted nor monitored for safety.
In a statement at the end of May, Attorney General Amos Wako said: ”I wish to state that in appropriate cases, where I have found sufficient evidence, I have prosecuted suspects found to have procured and/or attempted to procure abortion.”
But, an earlier statement by Minister of Health Charity Ngilu highlighted the fact that abortion is a daily occurrence in Kenya.
”I am afraid to inform this house that doctors, nurses and quacks are carrying out these activities in unlicensed clinics — and I assure the house that we shall crack down on all these people and get them out,” she told Parliament on May 27.
But Ngilu’s words may only reflect part of the picture. There are also reports that government hospitals carry out abortions, although IPS was unable to get comment from health authorities on this matter. The administration at present has about 3 000 medical facilities, all of which are expected to provide reproductive health services.
In addition, Kenya has 872 private medical institutions, which are registered with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board.
”Since the foetuses incident, we are investigating the matter together with the police and we expect the implicated doctor [gynaecologist John Nyamu] to give his side of the story, after which we shall decide on what action to take,” said Daniel Yumbya, the board’s executive officer.
He also admitted, however, that the regulatory body has been less than rigorous in enforcing abortion laws to date: ”This serves as a wake-up call … in fact, our inspecting committee had just started random checks. Last month we inspected in central Kenya. Nnothing suspicious was found.”
Activists from opposite sides of the abortion debate have seized on the discovery of the foetuses as support for their arguments.
”It is high time the authorities sorted out this issue once and for all. It does not make sense if only one doctor is nabbed for being suspected of terminating pregnancies while we know that this is just a tip of the iceberg,” said Jean Kaggia, chairperson of the Protecting Life Movement of Kenya.
She said the government needs to conduct checks of clinics to ensure that abortions are not on offer: ”If you have a law in place, you must make sure you use everything available to enforce it.”
Cornelius Arap Korir, chairperson of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, has also accused the government of turning a blind eye to the fact that clinics offering reproductive health services are also carrying out abortions.
”[The government] has been too lenient in this respect, allowing medical personnel to carry out abortions on the pretext of offering these services [reproductive health advice] and get away with it,” he said.
For its part, the National Council of Churches of Kenya is demanding that the licences of medical practitioners who help their clients to procure abortions be withdrawn.
”The law stipulates that a doctor acting contrary to the abortion code will have his or her licence withdrawn. But authorities are not putting this into action,” an official from the council said.
”That is why we are repeating the song that these practitioners must have their licences taken away. We shall sing it until something happens.”
Joyce Ombete, programme coordinator of the Nairobi-based Maarifa Women’s Movement, sees things differently.
”The law in this respect is hypocritical legislation that says one thing while the real situation on the ground is different. It needs to be reviewed,” she says. ”In essence, women must be allowed the right to choose whether to keep a pregnancy or terminate it, since they are the ones who know what circumstances they are facing at that moment.
”We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand while many more women continue to die through back-street abortions.
”It is high time the government offered free abortion and post-abortion services in all its public medical institutions. By doing this, no woman will have to go to quacks discreetly, and the horrific May 26 incident will not have to happen [again].”
The foetuses were found on May 26, crammed into garbage bags that were dumped on a road alongside the Ngong river. Documents with the foetuses led to the arrest of Nyamu, who operates two private reproductive health clinics in Nairobi.
Two nurses were also been detained in what local papers have taken to calling the ”babies in bags” scandal. Abortion is illegal in Kenya, except in instances where the pregnancy places a mother’s life in danger.
Although Nyamu has denied any involvement in the case, his facilities have been closed as police investigate the matter. The doctor also drew attention in 2002, when a woman died at his clinic while undergoing what was described as a minor operation. However, charges were never pressed against the facility.
According to a report launched in Nairobi early last month, A National Assessment of the Magnitude and Consequences of Unsafe Abortion in Kenya, an estimated 300 000 abortions are performed in the country annually.
The document also indicates that 2 600 women die every year from complications related to abortion. The Kenya Medical Association, the Kenyan chapter of the Federation of Women Lawyers, the Ministry of Health and International Projects Assistance Services — a group that works for women’s reproductive rights — conducted research for the report.
Pro-lifers maintain that women with unwanted pregnancies should be encouraged to consider options other than abortion.
”Such include adoption and fostering, which will not harm the mother and unborn child,” says Kaggia. Even she concedes, however, that the cumbersome and drawn-out nature of the adoption process in Kenya deters many from trying out adoption.
In recent months, the government has also experienced problems in supplying clinics with enough contraceptives to help men and women prevent unwanted pregnancies. — IPS