Barin Masoud
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 2007 (IPS) – Josephine, young and pregnant, had just felt her water break. She arrived at the doors of St. Mary s Hospital in Langata, Kenya ready to give birth to her first child. But the throbbing pain of delivery was just the start of her troubles.
A run-down maternity clinic in Oyugis, Kenya that has since been revamped by Healthy Globe in partnership with the local community. Credit: healthyglobe.org
She struggled to make her way through the delivery room alone. After being verbally and physically abused by her doctor, who refused to identify himself, Josephine continued to push, hoping her agony would soon be over.
The doctor harassed her by laughing at her, insulting her, and roughly pulling her legs apart as she tried to give birth. Fearing for her life and that of her newborn daughter, Josephine thanked the doctor for the delivery. She later suffered genital mutilation to her clitoris and her labia by the same doctor who was supposed to give her stitches. Her desperate cries for help were ignored by authorities.
Josephine s story is just one of dozens of accounts by Kenyan women who agonisingly describe disturbing tales of verbal attacks, sexual assault, neglect, and unhygienic conditions in a new investigative report called Failure to Deliver: Violations of Women s Rights in Kenyan Health Facilities.
The joint report was launched this month by the Centre for Reproductive Rights and the Federation of Women Lawyers-Kenya (FIDA Kenya).
Some120 women, ranging in age from 17 to 60, recalled their experiences in Kenyan health facilities, on the condition of anonymity, between November 2006 and May 2007.
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FIDA Kenya is a non-governmental group committed to the creation of a society that is free of all forms of discrimination against women.
The report includes government guidelines, media coverage from the last 10 years, and Kenyan health surveys to corroborate specific rights violations.
Failure to Deliver was released in Nairobi earlier this month and launched in New York last week to correspond with Kenya s presentation to the United Nations 39th Session of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
CEDAW talks will continue for the next two weeks at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where 14 state parties, including Kenya, will be facing questions about women s rights violations in parallel chambers.
CEDAW is an international convention adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979 that came into force in 1981 seeking universal women s rights.
The executive director of FIDA Kenya, Jane Onyango, said she had not yet received an official response to the report from the Kenyan government but planned to call on the minister of health to discuss the findings and recommendations.
We have got staff communication from one of the hospitals that were implicated and for me that is a sign that they are taking this report very seriously and we re hoping to open dialogue with other issues that were raised in the report, she told IPS.
Women in Kenya have a 1-in-25-lifetime risk of dying from a pregnancy-related cause, the report says.
It is estimated that maternal mortality ranges between 414 and 590 deaths per 100,000, according to the 2003 Central Bureau of Statistics Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.
I think in the case of Kenya, the problem is far more serious than the average case, Pramilla Patten, CEDAW Committee Expert, told IPS.
Abortion, which is outlawed in Kenya, results in 30 to 40 percent of maternal deaths, the report notes.
Data from the Kenyan Ministry of Health reveals that 20,000 Kenyan women are treated annually for abortion-related complications, the report adds.
These violations are not unique to Kenya, noted Nancy Northup, president of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, at a press conference launching the joint report. Around the world, despite the high social value that s placed on motherhood, there is often equally entrenched mistreatment and stigmatisation of pregnant women and this is especially true for vulnerable and marginalised women.
Dr. Lahra Smith, a Georgetown University professor in Washington who has worked and studied in Kenya, told IPS, Compared to at least most of East Africa, Kenya is really the strongest state. Not just the strongest politically, but just in terms of capacity.
I think these kinds of reports are particularly of use in places like Kenya where there really are things like a vibrant media, a vibrant local civil society, and a relatively diversified parliament that could use these kinds of reports to try to create change, Smith said.
Faiza Jama Mohamed, the regional director for Africa at Equality Now, who works in Nairobi, told IPS that just last week, the Kenyan government announced that maternity care would be free of charge for all women. Mohamed has been leading Equality Now s campaigns in Africa in support of promotion of the human rights of African women for the past eight years.
This comes after the report details the detention of women and their newborn children when they are unable to pay hospital fees for delivery.
My baby died. I don t know what killed her but I ve got to pay the bill first. I don t know what I m going to tell my family. At night I stay awake [and] hear babies suckling or crying, an unidentified Kenyan woman says in the report. The milk then flows from my breasts I wish mine was alive.
While the report also makes note of the uniformly good care at private facilities, it concludes that the lack of funding for public health facilities has resulted in the emergence of a two-tiered health care system in Kenya, which discriminates against the poor women and prevents or delays access to much needed care.
The report makes several recommendations to the government, public and private health care facilities and to the international donor community.
For the first time, people in Kenya and worldwide know that these violations take place and women are now recognising that these are violations of their rights. They may be able to come up to fight for their rights, Claris Oganga, a lawyer with FIDA Kenya, told IPS.
A draft bill for reproductive health and continued dialogue with the government is expected in the coming months, according to Oganga. However, these initiatives may be put on hold as national polls are scheduled for December 2007. President Mwai Kibaki is expected to run for reelection.
