Lack of political goodwill impeding access to services

Jedidah Maina, Evelyne Opondo and Nelly Munyasia (right) during a past presser on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

Sexual and reproductive health rights in Kenya, as in the rest of East Africa, remain problematic.

Even as countries enact laws and sign conventions committing to ensure access to services, challenges stand in the way of respecting these rights.

These challenges include limited resources, misplaced priorities, lack of political goodwill, cultural norms, beliefs, and practices that fail to recognise the universality of these rights and their importance.

Even worse is the fact that little efforts are invested in ensuring community awareness, breaking of cultural barriers and localising the laws and conventions is done. Kenya and other countries within the region have ratified several commitments since the recognition of sexual and reproductive health as a human right at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and as an explicit target of SDGs.

Some global and regional sexual and reproductive health rights commitments include but are not limited to Generation Equality Forum, ICPD25, African Union Agenda 2063, Maputo Plan of Action, Campaign on Accelerated Reduction on Maternal Mortality in Africa, the Eastern and Southern Africa Ministerial Commitment on sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents and young people among others.

Kenya, just like other countries, is not short of sexual and reproductive health rights policies. What we lack is the political goodwill to implement these policies and enhance access to reproductive health services. Many of the global commitments that African governments make remain in the boardrooms. We rarely localise the interventions and commitments.

The implementation of laws and policies on SRHR in Kenya remains problematic because of extreme religious, cultural and political standpoints. Because of moral and cultural believes, people continue experiencing the violation of their sexual and reproductive health rights as many people associate and perceive them to be strange and coming from outside Africa.

We are concerned that that several old held cultural norms and moral stands by some opinion leaders, are increasingly influencing government agencies and discouraging them from getting involved in decision making forums through weaponising culture and religion, thus frustrating the implementation of sexual and reproductive health rights commitments. This has led to eroding of SRHR laws and increased intimidation, harassment, and attacks on healthcare providers, advocates and persons seeking services, including key populations.

It's sad that many people in the reproductive age continue to suffer in silence because of lack of access to safe and legal abortion information and services, access to comprehensive sexuality education, access to contraceptives and related information.

We in the sector have urged for a holistic approach to addressing social drivers of risk such as lack of age-appropriate SRH information and youth-friendly services, poverty, and gender inequity.

-Ms Munyasia is the Executive Director, the Reproductive Health Network Kenya