Cases of unsafe abortion on the rise in Kisumu County

On 27 March in Kuoyo Kaila Kisumu County, I saw the consequences of unsafe abortion first hand when a young lady screamed desperately to get help for her 16-year-old sister. Immediately I ran towards her house to find her sister in a bad state. I was horrified by what I saw. Anyango was in pain and agony. She had inserted a sharp stick into her cervix in an attempt to terminate her pregnancy but she wasn’t lucky, the stick had broken inside her uterus. Anyango was bleeding profusely and time was not on her side. Sadly, she lost a lot of blood and could not endure the pain anymore.  She died when help was on its way.

Anyango’s sister explained to me that her sibling was prepared to take the risk with her health so that she could finish her high school education and go to the university to study nursing and after that get a job and help her family and community. She was their only hope. Now they were left hopeless.