- Title: KENYA: HIV-positve Kenyan women seek justice after illegal sterilisation
- Date: 6th September 2012
- Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KIBERA SLUM VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING IN SLUM VARIOUS OF ACHIENG DOING HER LAUNDRY
- Embargoed: 21st September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Kenya
- Country: Kenya
- Topics: Health
- Reuters ID: LVA6H94HYDBOIVEAQLD2RCF7CAJA
- Story Text: Kibera slum, one of Africa's biggest slums located on the outskirts of Nairobi, is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Residents of the squalid settlement receive no garbage collection or other services from city authorities and often have to do with piling garbage as children play in filthy streams nearby.
Apart from limited access to clean water, sanitation and other vital services lack of proper reproductive healthcare and information is an issue that affects many women and girls here.
Ruth Achieng lives in Kibera with her two children. She's among a group of women who are planning to take legal action against the government and hospitals after they were illegally sterilized in recent years.
In 2004 Ruth had a miscarriage and was rushed to Kenyatta National hospital by friends.
One week later, a doctor examining the 30-year-old informed her that she had been sterilised.
"They just said that they I had been sterilised, and that this meant that I would never have another child. I asked why they had done that to me and they said it was because of my HIV status, which means that because I was HIV positive I should not have more children, because they will also be HIV positive," said Achieng.
In a report dubbed 'Robbed of Choice' released by African Gender and Media initiative, 40 women across Kenya were sampled and found to have had a similar experience, suggesting that the practice was widespread.
The report revealed that physicians sought consent from pregnant patients when they were in labour and just about to deliver newborns by caesarean section.
In some cases patients were offered 'incentives' such as antiretroviral drugs or baby formula.
In many African societies women who are not able to bear children are frowned upon and most of the women who were interviewed described the disintegration of their marriages after their procedures.
Ruth says that being sterilised without her consent could also affect her life in future should she get married.
"They never consulted me, they just made the decision on their own and only informed me after the procedure was done. And as far as I'm concerned I'm still young enough to have more children. I may find a man to marry me even though I'm HIV+ I could meet a man even one who is not HIV+ and we live together and I have more children, but you find that because of what has happened I may not even be able to stay in a marriage," said Achieng.
The report indicates that coercive tactics were also used by medical staff to obtain 'consent' such as, threatening to withhold antiretroviral medication or baby formula if an HIV positive woman did not agree to undergo the procedure.
Pamela Adeka, a mother of six, had just given birth to twins when health workers at a nearby clinic asked her to get sterilized in 2004 in exchange for baby formula.
"I was a single mother and did not have a job or anyone to depend on at the time. So I asked myself what were my children going to eat if they did not get their formula. They were not even six months so they could not even take porridge. I was very disturbed and didn't know who to talk to. Back then if you tested HIV+ you were stigmatised even by your own family." said Pamela Adeka The report says that most women have suffered various side effects after the surgery.
Similar cases of illegal sterilization have also been reported in Swaziland, South Africa and Namibia recently.
In July a Namibian court ruled, state hospitals illegally sterilized three HIV-positive women, because they were infected with HIV.
Women Fighting AIDS In Kenya is a local NGO that brings women living with the virus together and helps get the information the need to stay healthy and lead normal lives.
The women in Kibera have formed support groups and check on each other often.
Today they are being briefed on what the organization has done so far about their case.
"There are two aspects to it as well, there is a criminal angle and there is a civil angle. We are only interested in the civil angle so that the women can get redress for violation of their rights. They had a freedom of choice which they were not given because in most cases the women who were sterilised the decision was made for them. They were not given the right information, they were just told that women who are living with HIV have no right ot have children," said Carol Odada, a lawyer at Women fighting AIDS in Kenya.
On its part, the Government has ordered an investigation on the claims. Dr. Shanaz Sharif, is Kenya's Director of Medical Services.
"We are actually taking it very seriously and what we have done is we have asked the medical practitioners and dentists board to take it upon to instill disciplinary measures against institutions and professionals involved in this," he said.
Recent government surveys indicate that 6.3 percent of Kenyan adults aged 15-49, about 1.5 million people - are living with the HIV virus that causes AIDS with a large number of them being women. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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