Woman’s tragic act over unwanted pregnancy

By Jeckonia Otieno

A few days ago, the world reflected on the ever-increasing population and how it is putting pressure on resources as well as impacting negatively on quality of life.

Population experts at the World Population Day marked in Nairobi last Wednesday say unless the growth is checked, the country will not realise its targets for Vision 2030.

To control the expansion, women and men must have access to family planning. Indeed this year’s World Population Day theme captures that very well: ‘Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services’. 

The theme is about getting contraceptives when you need them and sufficient information about their use as well as side effects.

Unfortunately, many people, both married and single, still cannot access proper family healthcare options, more so family planning.

It is because of this unmet need that some resort to unconventional methods such as abortion, taking of herbs and some cultural practices to plan their families.

Procure an abortion

The effect of these methods can be tragic. For example, Moris Onyango lost his wife, Hellen Akoth, last month after she allegedly tried to procure an abortion at a backstreet clinic at Kware in Ongata Rongai.

The abortion, as is often the case, did not go as planned and she developed complications. She sought help at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) but it was too late as she had lost a lot of blood.

Akoth, a mother of two, was in her fifth month of pregnancy when this happened. The couple had been married for 12 years. What could have prompted Akoth, an early childhood teacher, to run to a backstreet clinic to terminate her pregnancy? That is the question that has baffled many who knew her, including her husband.

Onyango who has just come back from burying his wife says he never suspected that Akoth was unhappy with the pregnancy. Perhaps she thought an abortion was a simple matter — getting rid of the pregnancy and going home as normal. But that was not the case.

It took Onyango six agonising days of searching before he found out that his wife had died.

Fruitless search

The search was fruitless.

“I thought she had run away from home but the fact that her phone was off worried me and I didn’t know what to do,” says Onyango, who searched for his wife in all KNH women’s wards and at the City Mortuary.

At the height of his despair, his father-in-law sent him a text message on his phone asking Onyango to meet him at KNH, where, he wrote, the staff wanted him to rush to the labour ward.

When Onyango went to KNH, he was informed by a nurse that his wife had been brought at the hospital on the evening of June 7 where she was admitted for an hour before she died.

He narrates: “The nurse informed me that my wife had been trying to terminate her pregnancy but in the process lost a lot of blood before she was rushed to Kenyatta by a woman who just gave her name as Jane Njeri.”

Attempts to reach Njeri for any information have been futile as her phone rang only once, and went off.

There are several cases like Akoth’s which are rarely reported. The illegal abortions are common especially in low income settlements and deaths resulting from the activity are rarely explained.

The price of an abortion ranges from Sh500 to Sh2,000 depending on who is seeking the services. Residents say school girls and a number of women frequent these places for the services.

We visited the hospital that Akoth went to and established that for as low as Sh800, the service is immediately available and no questions are asked.

Waiting for doctor

While we waited to see the doctor, we confirmed what the people had told us — there were many girls ahead of us and behind us waiting to see the doctor. As we watched the clients at the hospital, we had many questions.

Why do the women wait until they fall pregnant to terminate it yet there are family planning methods they can use to prevent such a situation?

We sought answers. Prof Joseph Karanja of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University of Nairobi points out all this is because women do not know their right to contraception as provided in Article 26 of the Constitution.

He argues that lack of information being common among women living in poverty; they opt for the shortcuts which turn out to be disastrous.

Rotting pieces

In fact, the women rely on information from others who have been through the same after finding themselves with the ‘problem’ of unplanned pregnancy.

Karanja says: “These women go to quacks who end up poking instruments up their wombs to cut the foetus then leave pieces that begin to rot thereby causing complications.”

Lack of choice is also another problem that faces many women. Dr John Ong’ech of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at KNH says that women should be given a choice and “duly educated on the negative consequences of the choices they might make as concerns maternal health.”