Reproductive health awareness in Kenya

Reproductive health in Kenya

Factors that impair rural education.

The W.H.O defines health as a state of complete physical, mental well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Reproductive health is derived from this citing responsible, satisfying and safer sex lives with the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide the time, method and frequency of the practice. Safety implies information and this is without a doubt achieved through education.

Lack of adequate information in rural Kenya is caused mainly by inequalities be it education, socio-economic status, gender, ethnicity, religion, age and resources available in their environment. These factors are related and more or less affect the same people.

• Education

  . A Wikipedia study of Kenya reveals an 85% literacy level which is relatively high considering that the entire world's stands at 83.7%. It is somewhat interesting to note that 2 thirds of the illiterates are women. Access to education doesn't necessarily mean reproductive health education as our curriculum dwells more on academics and fails to bridge the social gap. Health education is keyed in to some aspects of science in primary school and some biology in high schools. The kind of information needed is majorly passed on through talks and peer education programmes in school, media at home and no emphasis is paid on actual grasping of these concepts. Over the last few years however due to increased HIV/AIDS awareness, more people are moving out of ignorance toward learning all about their reproductive health.
  

• Socio-economic status.

  
  Our homeland is one of the poorest 50 nations in the world. Our GDP was on a rise until 2007 when it stalled following the post-election violence. Following this, some Kenyans are unable to even buy food and live in abject poverty. They rely on the government and N.G.O's for their daily needs. Majority of the population survives on hand-to-mouth means and a select few are able to cater for their needs as well as a few others.
  

  Poverty causes little or no education followed by limited access to medical facilities. This is a major setback in providing reproductive health information to Kenyans. Vision 2030, millennium development goals (M.D.G) and such like programmes have improved the current state of affairs; the size of the middle-class has increased which translates to less people living below the poverty-line.
  

• Gender

  . The fairer sex in Kenya has been lagging behind in almost every aspect of day to day life. From time in memorial certain traditional cultural practices and ethnic beliefs have left women at home with no education and a high fertility rate of about 4.49 children per woman in 2012. The illiterate trend began changing about two decades ago even to the point of having political figures and activists such as the late Nobel peace prize laureate PROF. Wangari Maathai. The affirmative action programmes and aids such as ZAWADI Africa have greatly promoted the education of the girl-child. Female genital mutilation (F.G.M) programmes and early marriages are being fought by the larger educated populous. This will hopefully reduce the high rate of maternal mortality.
  

• Culture and tradition

  . Kenya is distinctly diverse in this regard. From the Agikuyu in the central highlands to the Maasai on the plains to the Swahili at the coast and the Luhyia in western Kenya, we all have our beliefs and ways of life. It is however sad to note that some cultural practices still stand in the way of fighting ignorance. Some of these are the Nilotic F.G.M, wife inheritance and the recently uncovered Samburu Moran exploitation of little girls. While more people are outgrowing these barbaric customs, some stubborn elders refuse to comply with the demands of the fast-changing world. They insist on paying homage to the tribal practices that have been proven to be sources of failing reproductive health in recent times.
  

• Religion

  . A nation of 83% Christian, 11% Muslim, 2% irreligious and another 2% indigenous is generally a land with a high value for life. Out of the 83% only 47.7% Protestants have accepted the use of modern contraceptives. The Catholic Church is opposed to artificial contraception and orgasmic acts outside the marital union. Abstinence is the only form of birth control that is allowed. Other western Catholics oppose this stand while some protestant movements actually side with the Catholics. There is no ban on contraception in Hinduism. Islam encourages procreation and coitus interruptus is supposedly not prohibited.
  

• Age

  . The official adult age in Kenya is 18. Below this age, a minor is entitled to education, freedom from labour and provision of daily needs, namely food shelter and clothing. At this age, a girl still faces risks of complication during birth but sadly by 14 some of them are already married traditionally and have borne several children if they survive the ordeal. A majority never does. The government, N.G.O's, UNICEF and many organisations are up in arms combating this nightmare through encouraging education and providing temporary shelters for runaway girls.
  
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  Available resources.

  Our Kenya is a growing nation. We face challenges of few medical personnel and health centres, inadequate funds for the medicine, tropical epidemics, malnutrition, high infant mortality, poor governance, corruption and the HIV/AIDS scenario amongst other problems. Foreign aid and support has done a great deal in fighting some of these issues and it is reassuring to note that HIV/AIDS prevalence in young people (ages 15-24) and pregnant women has dropped.
  

 

Resources.

Further information about the Catholic view on Contraception is found in Pope Paul VI in his Humanae
Vitae (1968) that condemns the practice and the 1997 Vademecum for confessors from Vatican.

All information on this article is obtained from Wikipedia pages on Kenya, religious views on birth control and reproductive health.

The Samburu practice is in public domain either via individual blogs or on Citizen T.V Kenya's blog.