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KAKAMEGA: As the rate of unsafe abortion continues to raise concern, fingers have been pointed at medical students and doctors in public hospitals for perpetuating the vice.
During interviews in Kisumu with residents and clients who are privy to places where the vice is rife, many accused medical students from a public university and a training college of carrying out abortions.
The vice is rampant in the informal settlements of Obunga.
Even though the law stipulates that only qualified doctors should carry out abortions, quacks have been operating secretly in Kisumu, providing abortion services for girls or women who do not want to carry their pregnancies to term.
In Obunga slum, rogue doctors and some medical students prey on young girls who stream into their backdoor clinics for abortions.
Although some of the abortions have been successful, other cases have had complications that have led to death.
We discovered a medical facility on the Kisumu-Busia road that charges between Sh4,000 - Sh5,000 per abortion.
Reports also showed that some chemists in town also provide abortions and issue prescriptions afterwards.
A nurse confessed that sometimes even if the mother’s life is not in danger, some doctors propose that the woman undergoes the painful process to earn some cash.
“We know what kills pregnant women, and most of the causes are preventable. The leading causes of these deaths are abortions, bleeding and infections,” said Kisumu Medical and Education Trust Director Monica Ogutu. However, Maseno University School of Medicine Sstudents’ Association Chairman Ndungu Machatha said it was absurd to imagine that students are involved in providing abortion services.
“Students lack that technical ability to carry out abortions, and I will be the first person to report any student who attempts to undertake such an exercise,” said Mr Machatha.
Our investigations revealed that in Kakamega, a number of medical practitioners have mobile clinics that offer abortion services.
Our sources indicated that they carry out illegal abortions in private homes or their own houses.
It also emerged that students studying medicine, especially nursing, are the masterminds behind illegal abortions in the county.
One of the student studying nursing at Kakamega Medical Training College, who sought anonymity, confirmed that indeed they have all the skills and knowledge that would enable them to carry out abortions.
“We have been taught the medical skills that enable us to carry out abortions, whether legal or illegal,” he said.
He revealed that interns at Kakamega County Referral Hospital are the culprits who help many young women to procure abortions.
However, hospital Medical Superintendent Austine Ajevi, dismissed the allegations.
“Those who are claiming our interns help in carrying out abortions should provide proof to enable us deal with the suspects and culprits. Let nobody tarnish the name of the hospital yet he has no evidence,” warned Dr Ajevi.
Similarly, another student claimed to help women to have abortions in their houses at a small fee.
The Standard sought his assistance for an abortion and he said there was no specific place where he carried out abortions but could provide the service either in his house, the woman’s house or any other suitable place.
In Bungoma, one of the most famous outfits, a medical clinic we can not name for legal reasons, has become the first port of call for schoolgirls eager to terminate their unwanted pregnancies.
The facility is situated in a tiny shop in Bungoma town along the Bungoma-Mumias road.
Its front office dispenses drugs but through the backdoor it offers abortion services.
There are cases pending against the medic after he assisted a schoolgirl to abort.
“We know his clinic for abortions because police officers retrieved a foetus from the compound. However, he won the case arguing the mother was suffering from high blood pressure and the baby was in the wrong position so he had to save the life of the mother,” said a source well known to the doctor.
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