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/ 31 October 2005
Frail Musyimi Mbiti lies on a bed that is almost bare, in Mwingi District hospital. His little arms are tied to the bed rail with a dirty piece of cloth as a precautionary measure, failing which he would probably start gnawing on himself. This is the face of a famine that is eating its way through several parts of Kenya.
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/ 21 October 2005
Dubbed the ”babies in bags” scandal, the discovery of 15 foetuses last year near a river in Nairobi horrified Kenya — and drew government assurances that illegal abortions would be brought to a halt. A pregnancy can only be terminated in the East African country if it puts a woman’s life in danger.
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/ 19 September 2005
Since gaining independence in 1963, Kenya has held four elections. But, perhaps the most decisive ballot of all has been cast by citizens who voted with their feet — leaving Kenya for countries that seemed more promising. Concerns about corruption, economic decline and insecurity have prompted an exodus of professionals.
Civil society groups in Kenya have set their sights on an upcoming referendum in a bid to prevent the government from pushing through an altered version of the country’s draft Constitution. This comes after Parliament approved the amended draft at midnight last Thursday, by a vote of 102 to 61.
"I did not like doing this but the women would come to me crying, some saying that they already had ten children or more, and that they could not care for additional children," says Mariam, an abortion practitioner in Kenya. "One even threatened that if I refused, she would hang herself in my hut." Mariam’s story highlights the shortcomings of reproductive health care in refugee camps.
Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become de rigueur in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk among people riding minibus taxis on their way to work?
Few would dispute that community radio stations play a valuable role in informing people about events in their neighbourhood — and give a voice to those who might be denied a platform by larger media organisations. It’s a shame, then, that governments often hamper the development of community radio.
Last week’s call by the United Nations Population Fund to governments to increase spending on reproductive health may prove to be hard for Kenya to implement. Kenya has no budgetary allocation for reproductive health. Concerns are mounting that without state commitment to provide family planning in Kenya, maternal mortality may continue to rise.
Amnesty International (AI), the British-based human rights watchdog, has accused Kenyan authorities of violating the rights of terror suspects in the East African country — and called for an immediate end to these alleged abuses. "We do not support terrorism. However, measures to prevent terrorism can only be effective if they also guarantee and protect human rights," said a researcher on Kenyan issues for AI.
A decade after a landmark United Nations conference resolved to tackle violence against women head on, not enough has been done to put an end to this scourge, say female legislators from East Africa. They said that leaders in their countries had largely relegated violence against women — and other issues related to gender equality — to the back seat of policy-making and resource allocation over the past ten years.