Kenya – Passaris backs safe abortion in cases of unwanted pregnancies

She said women who procure unsafe abortion need care not condemnation.

by EMMANUEL WANJALA
04 July 2025

Abortion remains a criminal offence in Kenya, except under specific circumstances outlined in Article 26(4) of the constitution.

The law states that abortion is not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is a need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2025-07-04-passaris-backs-safe-abortion-in-unwanted-pregnancies

04.07.2025

Why the American abortion debate is affecting access in Kenya

Oct 31, 2024
By Neha Wadekar, Joe Mwihia, Job Wander, Associated Press
Video: 8:42 minutes (with transcript)

Abortion is a closely watched issue in this year's election, and not just in the U.S. As president, Trump cut funding for international groups that offer and counsel on abortion services. With support from The Pulitzer Center, special correspondent Neha Wadekar reports from Kenya where advocates are watching for who wins. A warning, this story contains accounts of sexual and gender-based violence.

Continued: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-the-american-abortion-debate-is-affecting-access-in-kenya

Ambiguous Abortion Laws Threaten Kenyan Women

Kate Gargano
April 27, 2024

The nature and wording of Kenyan abortion laws which prevent women from receiving safe abortions have recently come into question. As of 2010, Kenya’s constitution was revised to allow for abortions when the life of the mother is in danger or when the pregnancy was a result of rape and/or incest. However, legal avenues to receive an abortion continue to be restricted. Arbitrary enforcement of the pre-2010 constitution’s anti-abortion rhetoric, which not only banned abortions but also sought to punish those who performed them, causes confusion as to the procedure’s legality. Thus, doctors refrain from offering abortion procedures – forcing women, especially the impoverished and those living outside the capital, to resort to backstreet methods to receive the abortions they need. This discrepancy between what the law theoretically allows and the measures that are feasibly possible for someone in need to take has promoted a culture of precarity and fear for women and their advocates.

Continued: https://theowp.org/ambiguous-abortion-laws-threaten-kenyan-women/

27.04.2024

News

Center for Reproductive Rights

Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance

Kenya – Lobbies decry rise in maternal deaths due to unsafe abortion

Lobbies said lots of unsafe abortions were happening especially in slums across the country

by GEORGE OWITI
24 April 2024

Rights groups have decried what they termed increased mortality rates in the country resulting from unsafe abortions.

The sexual health rights lobby organisations on Wednesday attributed the problem to backward policies, stigma and politics surrounding safe abortion in the country. They include Trust For Indigenous Culture and Health (TICAH) and Women Collective Kenya.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/counties/western/2024-04-24-lobbies-decry-rise-in-maternal-deaths-due-to-unsafe-abortion/

24.04.2024

Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health

Women Collective Kenya

Breaking the Silence: Abortion Rights in Kenya – BBC Africa Eye documentary

BBC News Africa
Nov 26, 2023
Film: 45 minutes

Across the world, debates are raging about access to safe abortion. Complications from unsafe, backstreet procedures are a leading cause of maternal death in developing countries. In Kenya, where almost two-thirds of pregnancies are unintended, unregulated terminations are estimated to claim the lives of over 2,000 women every year.

BBC Africa Eye reporter Linda Ngari investigates a hidden crisis that has led to an estimated seven Kenyan women dying from unsafe abortions every day, with many more facing life-altering complications.

Continued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3AKMFgVKQ

Kenya abortion: Women go to backstreet clinics amid legal ambiguity

Legal ambiguity over abortions in Kenya is pushing thousands of women to turn to backstreet clinics. BBC Africa Eye explores how abortion is shrouded in stigma and misinformation.

26th November 2023
By Zoe Flood, Linda Ngari & Tamasin Ford, BBC Africa Eye, Nairobi & London

Edith is lying on a bed covered in old newspaper in a backstreet clinic in Nairobi.

Her legs are held high by stirrups while a man in a white medical coat explains he is about to put some medicine inside her uterus. A red bucket of bleach containing medical instruments sits on the floor.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67473183

Millie Odhiambo, Esther Passaris Team Up To Translate Kenyan Movie Into Law

By Richard Kamau
Friday, 31 Mar 2023

Nairobi Woman Rep Esther Passaris and Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo attended the premiere of ‘Prayer For The Departed’, a Kenyan film based on the true story of a 14-year-old school girl who was raped and died after a botched abortion.

The film, which premiered at Prestige Cinema last weekend, is based on the life and death of JMM who was raped, tried to obtain a backstreet abortion from a local quack, was denied lifesaving hospital care at government facilities, and eventually died of kidney failure.

Continued: https://nairobiwire.com/2023/03/millie-odhiambo-esther-passaris-team-up-to-translate-kenyan-movie-into-law.html

31.03.2023

Film, Art, Books

Esther Passaris

Family Reproductive Healthcare Bill

Millie Odhiambo

Nick Smith

Prayer for the Departed

Africa

Kenya

Human Rights

Kenya – Give adolescents contraceptives to address cases of teen pregnancies

By Esther Kimani
Nov 28, 2022

As the world population clocked eight billion recently, more than 3,500 delegates from across the globe gathered in Pattaya City, Thailand, for the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP).

The conference attended by key women’s rights advocates from Kenya, including Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris, provided a global stage for countries, organisations, and individuals to make important commitments, celebrate achievements, and interrogate barriers to the realisation of Reproductive Health goals, including access to contraception.

Continued: https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/opinion/article/2001461905/give-adolescents-contraceptives-to-address-cases-of-teen-pregnancies

Kenya: The New Cold War Over Access to Safe Abortion in Kenya

22 SEPTEMBER 2022
Inter Press Service

By Stephanie Musho and Ritah Anindo Obonyo

Nairobi — Fatuma is a 24 year old girl from Korogocho, an informal settlement
in Nairobi. She died in December 2021, from complications arising from an
unsafe abortion. Her friend and a few of her neighbors found her bleeding
profusely and unable to move. They rushed her to the hospital. Unfortunately,
she died before she could see the doctor.

Unfortunately, Fatuma's story is common for girls and women in Kenya. In fact,
at least 7 of them die every day from complications arising from unsafe
abortion. Worse still, is that with current trends - where 700 girls between
the ages of 10 and 19 are getting pregnant daily; the harrowing statistics on
abortions are likely to be worse. If Fatuma knew where she could access safe
abortion services, she would not have died.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/202209230002.html

Women in Kenya Are Using Knitting Needles to End Their Pregnancies. Blame Donald Trump.

The president has given fringe anti-abortion groups unprecedented influence.

OCTOBER 8, 2020
By NEHA WADEKAR

On a rainy morning in May 2019, Dr. John Nyamu was attending to patients on the cluttered first floor of an office building in downtown Nairobi when he heard raucous shouts from down the street. A caravan of protesters was winding toward him, a few hundred people teeming in the streets, bellowing through loudspeakers, and stopping traffic.

As the crowd reached his building, Nyamu, a well-known gynecologist who performs abortions in a private clinic, peered through his window at the protesters below to make out what they were saying. It turns out they were targeting him. “Abortion is murder! Abortion must go! Nyamu must go!” Some held signs with photos of mutilated fetuses. Others clutched baby-size cardboard coffins with crosses on them.

Continued: https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2020/10/08/abortion-kenya-knitting-needles-donald-trump/

08.10.2020