Spike in Mombasa backstreet abortions elicit new concerns
From the rooftop of a towering edifice in the balmy Nyali sub-county in the port city of Mombasa, the sun is setting into a beautiful sunset mood, inviting a scenic tropical background far beyond the rolling stretch of the adjacent windswept sandy beach.
Two teenage girls walk into a nearby chemist, exchange pleasantries with the attendant before requesting to be served with “MPT” a code name for Mariprist, a drug for early medical abortion, up to 9 nine weeks of pregnancy.
But after more enquiries, the pharmacist directs the teens to a backstreet abortionist in Miritini, some 11km west of the Island, for surgical abortion.
“The patient will be required to avail Sh15,000 and prepare to stay at the facility for more than a day since the doctor will have to monitor her after the operation to ensure she is okay.
So you must prepare well,” the pharmacist advises 15-year-old Mwanaisha* (not real name), one of the teens who is a Standard Seven pupil at a local school.
“Before you go, it will be important that you alert me first so that I make prior arrangements,” adds the pharmacist.
Since the reopening of schools in January 4, Mwanaisha has sporadically attended school.
She is two months pregnant, but bearing the brunt of tongue wagging borne out of her situation, she has made up her mind to terminate the pregnancy at once, her aunt discloses.
Religious inhibitions
But for her parents, the situation is disturbing. Being staunch Muslims, the family feels sandwiched in the horns of dilemma as the pregnancy is also a testament that the girl went against the Islamic teachings.
But even worse still, the man said to be responsible for Mwanaisha’s pregnancy is nowhere to be seen.
The aftermath of sweet times they repeatedly had during the nine-month indefinite closure of schools along the sandy beaches has now turned into bitter aloes.
Mwanaisha is not the only teenager in this situation. Abdallah Adulrehman, a community-policing official at Bombolulu Kismani reveals cases of abortion involving school going teenagers have been going on silently.
He says most of the cases are shrouded in secrecy tightly kept between female parents and the teens involved.
“Majority of the cases go unreported. The few that backfire are the ones that come out because at that point it becomes impossible to continue hiding.
No one can afford to hide when their kin is in danger. They will always come to seek assistance from us,” says Adulrehman.
The officer say his Kisimani office has handled over nine such cases from Ziwa la Ng’ombe area alone between January and March adding that most of the cases involve secondary school students aged between 14 and 19.
Raised red flag
Early this month, Kakamega Catholic bishop Joseph Obanyi raised the red flag over an increase in abortion cases in the church sponsored schools.
“The sponsor (bishop) categorically reminds all stakeholders in education and especially in Catholic sponsored schools that abortion is criminal and immoral.
Any support of it directly or indirectly will be against human dignity and church norms,” a letter dated March 3 signed by Fr Bonface Kibaki on behalf of the bishop warned.
In the letter, the church says any student who has been proved to have aborted should be isolated from the rest and counselled.
“Schools are therefore advised to take keen interest in pregnant girls and counsel them to deliver.
Though we don’t support early pregnancy, abortion cannot be tolerated,” Fr Kibaki warned.
And speaking to the People Daily this week, Fr Kibaki warned that the church would not hesitate to sack teachers who abetted abortion in schools it sponsored.
Fr Kibaki says the criminal activity has been going on quietly with the blessings of head teachers and parents.
For the better part of this month, Fr Kibaki has been meeting all principals and head teachers from the 158 and 250 Catholic sponsored secondary and primary schools in Kakamega diocese to sensitise them on the issue.
“Due to the seriousness of the issue, we have created special desk in the diocese to deal with the protection of the girl child,” says Fr Kibaki.
But in Mombasa, Adulrehman says the cases are now on a decline as most of the students have now turned to family planning methods to avoid getting pregnant.
“Not once or twice but on numerous occasions I have received concerns from parents that their children are being secretly subjected to family planning methods without their consent.
Children as young as 13 years of age are now using family planning method,” he says.
Education officials in Mombasa however say such cases hardly reach their office since they are illegal and are done under cover.
Right to education
Mombasa Director of Education Moses Bosire however says mechanisms have been rolled out to ensure that those all learners who become expectant are not denied their right to education.
“It is very difficult for abortion cases to be brought to our attention because the practice is illegal… however we have put in place mechanisms to ensure that all those who got pregnant for whatever reasons and were registered to do exams, are accorded the chance to do so,” Bosire said: “But on the cases of abortion I have no information.
This is very difficult to tell…Okay we get intelligence reports but you see such cannot be treated as actual cases.”
The education boss also says his office is not aware of cases of students using contraceptives, a claim which we verified with community policing officials in Kisauni alongside a number of parents.
Reports of cases of fetus found in dumpsites are not new in Mombasa with young school girls aged between 13 and 20 said to be responsible to most of the cases from Mvita in the Island all the way to the mainland in Likoni, Changamwe, Jomvu, Kisauni and Nyali.
Sources familiar with the malpractice reveal that procuring abortion has never been mindboggling task for the service seekers.
They say secret clinics mostly nestled in the midst of residential buildings with no directional signboards, offer unsafe abortions cheaply.
They handle clients mostly teenage girls, female sex workers and even married women.
