A few months back I watched The Patricia show on KBC where they were talking about teenage pregnancy. I was shocked to find that young girls are more afraid to get pregnancy than they are of Hiv/Aids.
Like how the computer is underlining the Hiv word and giving me other options which include-Hive.lol
One girl put it so nicely “you can hide Hiv from mum, but pregnancy? Pregnancy you can’t hide”.It broke my heart. This explains why they would rather secretly have an abortion than tell their parents.
Lemmi give you a little statistics
WHO reports that 42wmen abort annually.
In Kenya it’s reported that there are 300,000 abortions annually
Who says 67,000 women die every year due to unsafe abortion and about 2,600 of them are from Kenya. KNH receives abortion related cases daily and 1 in every 10 of these cases dies. They say people lie but numbers don’t. You must admit this are some pretty scary numbers. Wait it gets worse... in Nyanza 42% of 15-19yr olds are already sexually active. It’s so disappointing especially because that’s where I come from. I remember one of my relatives joking that the rest of the Kenyan tribes must be immune to Hiv. I mean how else how else can you explain how majority of Hiv/Aids cases are from Nyanza
(There are some people who even believe that chiqs from nyanza are loose, it makes me mad when some one is with me because of this. I do not necessarily follow the trend or fit into that stereotype).
There have been cases of fetuses being dumped by the roadside. This is also seen in slums where fetuses are dumped and are sometimes eaten by pigs which make sausages which find their way into your plate…am joking
(Now sausages don’t seem so tasty donnit?).
Women in the slums who cant afford health care result to crude ways of aborting. They use : knitting needles, bent coat hangers, ingest bleach , undiluted juice, herbal drinks, malaria pills etc. The shame of unwanted pregnancy also drives this women to procure abortions from ill equipped backstreet clinics. The botched abortions lead to perforated intestines, injured uteruses, bladder and sometimes even the rectum. Doctors complain that abortion complications putting a strain on the already little resources.
When the debate came to Kenya you should have seen the voices in the media. I was amused to see men talk and yet they do not have uteruses. Apart from a few feminists the women were silent on the issue. You would think as the holders of the uteruses we would be given the space to choose what we want. This men who are sometimes too lazy even to carry a condom, don’t even bother to be involved in the choice of family planning. Some pretend to care that you are pregnant but as soon as the babies comes they are no where to be seen I know of women who go to the maternity clinic and come home alone, the husband doesn’t even bother to come for them from the hospital. Ideally it would be nice if men stepped up and became leaders in their families or what did they think the word leader/head of the house meant? I know of a family friend of mine who is involved in his wife’s life they discussed the method of contraception; he knows when the wife has a period and is generally aware of what’s happening. He is not a stranger in his family’s life .The support should be even as simple as including your wife in your medical cover so that she can afford proper medical care.
Then there was the government getting into our bedrooms. The government which prides itself in taking care for its citizens. The same government that admitted to there being a shortage of family planning methods in Kenya. The same government that says that Kenya is yet to attain contraceptive security. The same government that refuses to give death certificates to stillborn children.
I hear some medical officers get rid your foetus (if you miscarry)even without letting you see it, because to them its not that important.Like there's something wrong with you wanting too give your dead baby a decent burial.
The same government that doesn’t help you when the kids are finally born. The billions of the FE money disappearing, the unimix for the children die of anger being contaminated under their watchful eye. Te police men treating women who abort as criminals and sometimes leaving them to bleed to death or jailed for 7 years. Then the 'when does life begin' debate started_
is it after fertilization? After 3mnths? or should we just go straight and arrest the men who masturbate for killing potential fertilizers?lol
The church came out to show their disgust at abortion and read us the riot act. The church which is against condoms knowing very well there’s innocent people out there vulnerable to Hiv?Aids. The church with some questionable characters, we hear of clergy men who organize for abortion for the women they impregnate, The church with people molesting little boys too.The church which is against sex education. The church which sometimes stigmatizes the teenage mothers and drive some to abortion.smh
The society too has failed the woman The stigma associated with unwanted pregnancies. The conservative nature which has seen sex education being removed from the syllabus. The lack of knowledge leaving the young people to experiment with sex without knowing the consequences. But what do I know..?
Anyhoo currently in Kenya they only allow abortion:when there’s rape, incestuous relationships, unsound mind or the woman's life is in danger.
I know you are prolly wondering where my stand it on this issue?
and i will tell you. should abortion be legalized or not? I don't know. Personally i think we are going about this the wrong way. We should aim at making sure we have enough contraceptives in the country instead of working backwards,
it's sad to realize that some of the family planning methods in Kenya are ancient and have been faced out due to their ineffectiveness and yet we are still using them.seriously!!!
To women-just take charge of your sex life because when the baby comes it will be inside you.You will have the responsibility of taking care of it.If you are not ready, life itakuwa mrefu kwako!
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