Police thwart attempt by underage girls to get contraceptive injections

Cyrus Thairu (left) of Marie Stopes poses for a picture with Tony Kozolo of Form Ni Gani Movement during a peaceful march in Nairobi to raise awareness on reproductive health rights for men and women. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Marie Stopes ordered to stop offering abortion services immediately.
  • Move followed raid on a Marie Stopes clinic following a tip-off to the police.
  • Police thwart attempt to inject underage girls contraceptives.

On Sunday, November 11, 2018, officers from the Kilimani Police Station stormed the Marie Stopes clinic at Kenyatta Market and found 47 girls allegedly queuing to get contraceptive jabs.

CAMPAIGN

The clinic had earlier conducted a campaign in Kibera, Ngumo and other nearby estates, to sensitise girls and women to unwanted pregnancies. They were also offering free family planning services.

Kilimani OCPD, Michael Muchiri told the Nation that a caller tipped the police off that there were underage girls seeking contraceptive jabs at the clinic.

INVESTIGATION

“We sent officers there and, indeed, we asked those girls we suspected were underage to go back home and then summoned the workers we found at the facility,” he said, adding that no child was injected as the police arrived in time to stop any such plan.

As police continued investigating the matter, the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board (KMPDB) was putting together a report after investigating allegations that the Marie Stopes Kenya offers abortion services at some of their outlets in the country.

SUSPENSION

A preliminary KMPDB inquiry committee was instituted following a complaint filed on November 2, 2018, by Thomas Ireri and Ann Kioko, after the clinic began an online campaign allegedly advocating for abortion.

ABORTION

In a ruling seen by the media directing Marie Stopes Kenya to suspension abortion services, the preliminary inquiry committee, chaired by Director of Medical Services Jackson Kioko, showed that the international non-governmental organisation had admitted to having conducted abortions on 1 per cent of the women who sought advice on the same.

SH5,000

Witnesses who appeared before the committee said the clinic offered charged Sh5,000 for an abortion at a woman's request, and not according to the conditions stipulated by Article 26 of the Constitution, which says: “Abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.”

COMPLAINTS

The complainants raised the issue with the Ministry of Health after the clinic began an online and media campaigns purportedly promoting abortion, adding that the campaigns were still running, despite a ban by the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB).

They said that they had made several calls to the numbers provided, and that upon indicating that a pregnant person was seeking services, they had been referred to a clinic for an abortion, and asked to take Sh5,000 along.

CHAPTER 253

“Previously, one would be referred to a clinic at Afya Centre in Nairobi, but currently, one is referred to the nearest Marie Stopes clinic,” noted the board, which is mandated under Chapter 253 of the Kenyan Constitution and Rule 4 of the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Disciplinary Proceedings to conduct inquiries into complaints

 Marie Stopes Kenya Chairman Hezron McObewa told the committee that the organisation, which has 22 clinics in the country — all registered by the board — started a campaign on reproductive health and safe abortion in August this year in consultation with the Reproductive Health Consortium.

RESPONDENT

“The intention of the said campaign was to provide a space for discussing abortion, which is an emotive issue. Mr McObewa further stated that 99 per cent of callers attended to by the respondent through their toll-free numbers are counselled and advised against abortion, hence they end up carrying the pregnancy to term. However, he stated that only 1 per cent go ahead to abort,” the board noted.

CONSIDERATIONS

Mr McObewa told the committee that the organisation, which is registered as an NGO in Kenya, has guidelines, and the greatest consideration is the life of the mother.

He told the committee that abortions have been carried out at the organisation’s clinics only when the mother’s life is in danger, when there is an incomplete abortion, when the foetus is non-viable and when the mother does not want a child.

INCOMPLETE

Mr McObewa further told the Committee that 80 per cent of the procedures are necessitated mostly by incomplete abortions.

“It was his evidence that any patient that goes to their clinic with a view to procuring an abortion is first counselled and advised on other options and where the patient insists, they are referred to a medical officer for further management and an abortion is undertaken if deemed necessary in the opinion of the medical officer,” the board indicated.

CONTENTIOUS

Meanwhile, Marie Stopes Marketing Director Christopher Wainaina told the committee that the purpose of the online campaign was to highlight and avert the high mortality rates in Kenya resulting from unsafe abortions.

The Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) told the committee that Marie Stopes did not submit the contentious content to the board for classification as required under the Films and Stage Plays Act, and continued running the adverts on local radio, TV, and online.

GUIDELINES

On Friday, the committee ordered the organisation to stop offering abortion services in all its clinics in the county immediately, and to submit weekly returns to the KMPDB, within 60 days, for all the services rendered in its facilities.

“Marie Stopes Kenya is directed to review its existing guidelines for reproductive health services, which should be in conformity with the law, and submit the draft guidelines to the board within 60 days for its approval,” the committee directed.

ILLEGAL

But reacting to the ruling, Kenya Medical Association Chairman Otieno Nyunya said that the ban is illegal and unconstitutional.

“It will hurt and kill women. In fact, one or two women will have died from unsafe abortion by the end of today if MSK complies. All right-thinking individuals must condemn this uncaring action,” Dr Nyunya said.

The move was also condemned by the Atheists in Kenya Society in a statement saying, “Abortion in Kenya remains commonplace”.

COMMONPLACE

“There is undeniable evidence that women continue to have abortions in countries where it is outlawed, under illegal and unsafe conditions that often result in terrible tragedy. Kenya is not an exception,” the society's Vice-President, Ms Daisy Siongok, said.

She said abortion drugs have become so readily available in Kenya and so it is practically impossible to enforce abortion bans because with such availability, if a woman takes the wrong dosage or drug she is likely to wind up in the emergency room bleeding.

QUACKS

“We should regard the woman as a person and not just a container for the foetus. We should, therefore, give great consideration to her rights and needs as well as those of the unborn,” she said.

The ban is likely to revive debate on abortion, more so, because lately, the media has highlighted the existence of quacks conducting backstreet abortions, putting women’s lives in danger. Police thwart attempt to inject underage girls contraceptives

The African Population and Health Research Centre, APHRC, estimates that more than 464,690 abortions are conducted in Kenya annually.