Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered county commissioners to carry out a nationwide crackdown on private clinics offering emergency contraceptives to underage females. The Nation reports that he said this is playing into the hands of “sex pests” and provides “sexual insurance” for the minors. Education Secretary Zack Kinuthia said “it is not in any Kenyan law that minors access family planning health services, since planning is for those in legally recognised marital unions”.
Kinuthia cited injectables, oral, intrauterine and female voluntary surgical methods, the Norplant, vaginal barriers and spermicides as the most common types of contraceptives minors are accessing.
He said the President was cognizant of the fact that the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board is mandated to regulate safe modus operandi in the health sector, "but that is not to say we will not hesitate to infer criminal culpability against any in the health sector engaging in rogue activities in the bodies of our small girls or any other human for that matter".
Kinuthia announced that the Ministry of Education will partner with security organs to ensure the President's directive is enforced to the letter. Murang'a county director of health, Dr Winnie Kanyi, said President Kenyatta is spot-on about the issue. "There has been too much over-the-counter procurement of health services regarding contraceptives," Kanyi noted.
She said the way forward is for all women needing reproductive health services to go to government health facilities. "We are not saying minors should not get reproductive health services. Even counselling is part of such services," she said. "Ideally, we have a moral and professional duty to sensitise even minors on these reproductive health issues, but that is not to say we should make the issue fertile ground for moral decadence."
[link url="https://allafrica.com/stories/202007280949.html"]Full report in The Nation[/link]