Parents say no child should get condoms

Churches and parents have written to Members of Parliament to consider withdrawing the Reproductive Health Care Bill 2014 that suggests giving children as young as 10 birth control pills and condoms.

In a presentation to the Parliamentary Committee on Education Chairperson Sabina Chege, the clergy said they want the National Assembly to help defeat the Bill that they say will only encourage premature sex. They were led by head of Anglican Church Eliud Wabukala and his Roman Catholic counterpart John Cardinal Njue.

“Our document outlines the official position taken by the Church on this matter of birth control pills to minors. The leaders in Parliament must not commit such a blunder,” Archbishop Wabukala said.

He stated that they want Nominated Senator Judith Sijeny, the sponsor of the proposed law, to consider withdrawing it so they can seek other ways of guiding children, whom he described as being in a delicate stage.

“Giving the children pills and condoms is not a solution to the social ills we face today,” he said.

If Senate passes the Bill, it will be sent to the National Assembly for MPs’ input before the President can probably assent to it to become law.

“Children as young as 10 fall in the information stage, and all that is needed is to encourage and incorporate values in them,” churches write.

The cleric said that instead of the legislative approach, there is urgent need to strengthen family values and role modelling for the youth.

This is the same argument by parents. National Parents Association Secretary General Musau Ndunda told the Sunday Nation that they had written to the Senate Committee on Health requesting them to shelf the Bill.

“In our letter, we want them to withdraw the Bill and allow time for consultations. This would be like telling our children that they are on their own when we are supposed to be their guide,” he said.

Secondary School Heads Association Chairman John Awiti agrees with this position.

“The Bill would mean we have abdicated our role of teaching morality to children, it is a very dangerous way to go. We do not want to turn this Country into the equivalent of the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah,” he says.

According to him, the push to have condoms distributed in schools is not only a way of blindly embracing unhealthy western practices but also a strong signal that we want to turn the country into a dumping ground for products that are not doing so well in markets abroad.

“We will be taking up this matter at our heads meeting this week in Mombasa, the ministry must be wary of this,” he said.

The Reproductive Health Care Bill 2014 recognises that children as young as ten are sexually active. As such, it proposes that they get access to comprehensive reproductive health services.

The proposed law suggests that health workers get legal authority to refer adolescents to qualified and accredited health experts for reproductive health services and products.