From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2013
Deputy President William Ruto over the weekend on his political tour to woe electorates in Western Kenya to join and support Jubilee coalition said chiefs are to blame for teen pregnancy, threatening they would be sacked if they do not stop the vice. Ruto said chiefs know very well who impregnate these girls and yet they do not charge them.
This is to think naïve. All of us politicians, business men, members of clergy, etc are responsible for the pregnancy of these innocent tender girls. January 10, 2005 was a Monday like today when my article ran on Kenya Times.
The article depicted the drama in an Eldoret when members of the public caught a business man red-handed with a school girl in lodging preparing to have sex. This was just few of such cases that had been reported in that area.
When the 16-year old Form Two girl who admitted to have consented to sex after the business man had bought her some chapati (flat baked bread), was asked why she consented to sex when she was still a minor and at school, the answer crowned it all. We are consenting to sex because our parents cannot afford to cater for our basic needs.
The girl did not shy off to state very bravely that there were several of such business men in the area who lured schoolgirls with money. They even bought them expensive phones, paid their school fees, did for them shopping. “These guys are just good to us”, the girl expressed.
The girl who said the man who is having sex with her even when school is closed was her neighbour said he had bought an assortment of items for her to take to school. He had taken her to a supermarket in town where he did the back-to-school shopping for her before the lodging ordeal.
The girl said almost every girl in that school had an elderly man friend and her case was just very unfortunate because they were caught. The whole thing here is not just sex- it is to do with poverty.
While Ruto was putting blames on chiefs, elsewhere a doctor had been arrested for performing abortion on 17 years old girl. Again this is just few cases of abortions performed on teenagers. On Thursday, September 23, 2004 the same newspaper, Kenya Times ran my story on this ordeal.
The story was about the former Nairobi archdiocese Bishop’s secretary, Father Maloba Wesonga. He had thrown the blame on the leading Catholic leaders including President Kibaki, Leader of the Official Opposition Uhuru Kenyatta and National Assembly Speaker, Francis Ole Kaparo for failing to come forward to condemn abortion in Kenya which was on the rise that year.
A National Assessment of the Magnitude and Consequences of Unsafe Abortion in Kenya had just released its report that year that an estimated 300,000 abortions were being performed annually, 700 daily with 2,600 women dying every year from complications related to abortion.
Catholic leaders could not condemn abortion because the constitution that time did not specify when life of a person begins. That is why in 2004 Lady Justice Rawal acquitted Dr. John Nyamu on the ground that the unborn children were according to Section 214 of the penal incapable of being killed.
This was partly because prosecution had chosen to charge Dr. Nyamu for murder (S.203 of penal code) and not the procuring of abortion (158 to 160 of the penal code). That is also why the judge ignored the provisions of the criminal procedure code that required her to find the accused guilty of killing the unborn even though he had not been charged with it (181(2) of the Criminal procedure code).
Dr John Nyamu was arrested for performing abortion which included 15 foetuses found dumped in a Nairobi river. Fourteen suspects were arrested in connection with the dumping. They included 10 proprietors of various back-street clinics in Eastlands area, where the unborn babies were retrieved.
Even in Tanzania where abortion is restricted by law, there is overwhelming evidence that it is widely practised. Studies show that illegal abortion is one of the major causes of maternal mortality. A study conducted in the Southern Highlands in 1983 estimated that 17 per cent of maternal deaths were directly associated with abortion.
Even in Uganda where under the Penal Code of 15 June 1950 (sections 136-138, 205 and 217) the performance of abortions is generally prohibited, abortion is still performed. As a result, there is a high level of maternal mortality, estimated in 1990 at 1,200 deaths per 100,000 live births.
The reasons women and girls cite for choosing abortion are broadly similar throughout the world: Women may want to stop or postpone childbearing. They may have socio-economic reasons for ending pregnancy — they may not be able to afford the costs of having and raising a child, or they may want to continue pursuing their educational and career goals.
Others may choose abortion because of relationship problems or because their pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. And still others may cite age or health reasons — they feel too young or too old to have a baby or that pregnancy will affect their own or their baby’s health.
At the time Dr Nyamu was accused of performing abortion, every single day Kenyatta National Hospital received between 40 to 60 abortion cases with most of the patients being teenagers and young women barely into their twenties.
It was the same time that Legislator Adeline Mwau wanted to see abortion legalised in Kenya. She argued that there is a strong link between abortion and poverty and that is why if one cannot take care of the baby, the only alternative is to terminate it.
“Is it better to bring up a child who then becomes a street child, or to bring up seven children that one is unable to take care of?,” she was quoted by media as asking and adds that women should continue aborting as long as there is no law in Kenya that forces a man to pay for the upkeep of a child fathered out of wedlock.
Girls and young women who do not want to get pregnant have resorted in taking Morning- After Pill (MAP). MAP works by preventing ovulation or making it difficult for a fertilized egg to implant in the uterine wall. MAP is 75-80 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.
It consists of a relatively high dose of Estrogen & Presterone and is given within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to women who are ovulating and are near midcycle (ovulation).
Other methods to prevent pregnancies include the Abortion Pill (brand name Mifeprex) which is a form of early abortion caused by the combination of two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone needed to maintain the pregnancy.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002