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THE news that she was one of the top performers in last year's Kenya Certificate of Primary Education barely registered with teenager Peninah Makokha. She had a more pressing issue to deal with before she could join the celebrations. Passing this exam put her on track to achieving her dream of being a doctor. It meant she could join a prestigious national school, a sure card in this country for university entrance.
But before she could celebrate, Makokha had one critical concern: she was pregnant and had to do something about it. She visited a quack known for helping out girls in her situation. She paid with her life.
Even as Makokha's funeral service was on, another teenage girl was being buried in the same neighbourhood in Lugari, some 400 kilometres west of Nairobi. She too had died in the course of a backstreet abortion.
Even when abortions do not lead to death, the cost to women and the health care system is unbearably high. The Kenyatta National Hospital has only 40 beds in its obstetrics and gynaecology ward; but, at any given time, it accommodates more than 100 patients. Of the 3,600 patients admitted annually, 1,000 are here for incomplete abortions. "At least five patients with incomplete abortion are cleaned up daily and sent home," says Dr James Kiarie.
The Teenage Mothers and Girls Association of Kenya estimates that between 8,000-10,000 unmarried girls in the country drop out of school every year due to pregnancy.
Though Kenya has a policy of readmitting schoolgirls who get pregnant, this is not always practical. Besides, there is the social stigma attached to pre-marital pregnancy.
The laws in Kenya also do not allow for safe abortion - the law says that abortions are legal only when the life of the mother is threatened. Besides the legal roadblocks, pro-choice activists find that any discussion of safe abortion in this country tends to be hijacked by the influential Catholic Church, which is dominant beyond its population strength (only 28 per cent nationally).
According to Church teachings, there is no valid reason for allowing abortion -- not even when the mother's life is in danger, according to dermatologist and pro-life activist Melanie Miyanji. The Church believes that it is not up to human beings to end the life of persons unable to defend themselves. "Choosing to kill a baby to save a mother's life has no moral justification," Miyanji says. "God knows the outcome even as we try to save both lives." She argues that if the young are taught that pre- and extra-marital sex are immoral, there will be no unwanted pregnancies to set off the abortion debate. So conservative is the local element of the Catholic Church that when the Spanish church recently okayed the use of condoms in curbing the spread of HIV, the Kenya Episcopal Conference issued a swift rejoinder that it would continue championing virtue since "condom use promotes immorality and sexual promiscuity, especially among youth".
But while the Church talks high morals, young people are constantly exposed to images that portray sex as glamorous. Through the Internet and cheap video screening outlets, pornography is easily accessed by even the very young. Some parents have tried to control what their children watch on television, but this has not worked because their children can sneak out and watch the same programmes with friends or pay a mere KSh5 (US$ 1=75.7 Kenya Shillings) at video centres to watch pornographic movies.
Talking about abstinence is good, says Rosemary Muganda-Onyando, Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Adolescence. But it is not enough. "And who teaches morality to orphans like Peninah?" she asks.
There have been spirited campaigns in local print and electronic media, in which young people profess to have 'chilled out' of sex. They are based on peer pressure and clearly hope to shame the young into avoiding pre-marital sex, but there have been no public indications of the success of this strategy so far. There are even those who argue that the young people being bombarded by these messages are simply mouthing platitudes and not necessarily doing as they say.
The promoters of the latest campaign can take comfort in one thing, though: there has been none of the backlash that met earlier campaigns promoting 'Trust' condoms as a cheap and effective way to stay safe in the era of HIV/AIDS.
— (NewsNetwork/WFS/AW)
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