How to abort has consistently been one of the most asked questions online by Kenyans according to Google Zeitgeist results. In deed a quick search on the world’s most popular search engine produces multiple results, majority of which are incorrect, harmful, troubling and bordering on suicidal.
It is thus not surprising that this online queries translated into about 465,000 unsafe abortion cases every year, many of which develop into severe complications, life time disability and even death. ( According to a 2012 report by Ipas Africa Alliance and Ministry of Health)
Sometimes when we see this statistics in yet another report, there is an assumption that these are people from another world, faceless people without names and families, people who won’t be remembered.
Let me tell you the story of one of the 465,000; Halima.
Halima lived in the door opposite my former house in Kawangware, one of the informal settlements in Nairobi. She lived off her small business with her two children, a boy and a girl. They were her life. So she struggled to make sure they lacked nothing.
I use past tense because she, Halima is no more.
Cause of death? Severe bleeding from unsafe abortion.
See Halima had been in a relationship with this man. A few months ago she discovered that she was pregnant. She wasn’t ready for another child. So she decide to terminate the pregnancy. She was advised that the best way to do it was to swallow concentrated jik detergent, a bitter and strong concoction of tea leaves and just to be sure to insert wire into her vagina.
When her neighbor finally heeded to her call for help, she found Halima on the floor lying in a sea of blood, her once beautiful body a caricature of a human being. Even before the neighbour could get help, Halima slumped into the cold bloody floor never to wake up again.
But Halima is just an example of many women who get unintended pregnancies, and due to the restrictive policy and legal environment on abortion in Kenya, decides to employ grotesque means to get rid of the pregnancy.
Imagine if these women had the choice of walking into the nearest hospital in Kenya and getting safe abortion services? Halima for one would still be here with us today, taking care of her two children and helping her small community in her small way.
This blatant disregard for loss of lives of Kenyan people is not the nation we want.
In December 2011 the Ministry of Health launched the “National Standards and Guidelines for the reduction of morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion in Kenya to provide clinical guidelines to health providers providing safe abortion services only to be withdrawn in a huff barely two years later.
Women are not dying because of untreated diseases. “They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.”
Dr. Mahmoud F. Fathalla
As the 57th Ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACPHR) kicks off in Banjul Gambia today, it is time we asked the hard questions. Kenya ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (African Charter) on 21 January 1992 and signed the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) on 17 December 2003 during the Summit when the Protocol was adopted.
As a signatory, Kenya will be submitting a report on how they have implemented these policies and frameworks to ensure women’s health are secured. Whereas we appreciate the achievements made so far, as civil society organizations we believe that our agenda is far from being realized if women like Halima will still die from unsafe abortion or maternal.
WE CALL UPON the Government of Kenya to immediately release, disseminate, popularize and resource the National Standards and Guidelines for The Reduction of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity that provide clinical guidance to health care providers on the skills and indications for provision of safe abortion care in accordance with the Kenyan Constitution. {Excerpt from Alternative Report on Kenya- Reproductive Health and the Maputo Protocol }
Esther Kimani works with Young Women’s Leadership Institute, a feminist organization whose mission is to nurture the leadership of young women and create spaces for their participation in policy processes
Follow me on twitter @Kelsiekim and @ywli_info
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