Silence Is Deadly: Why Kenya Must Talk About Abortion
In Kenya, abortion is illegal unless a woman’s life is at risk. That narrow exception, buried in vague constitutional language, has become a death sentence for thousands. Each year, over 2,600 women die from unsafe abortion complications. Every single day, at least seven Kenyan girls or women lose their lives because they were denied safe, legal options. Yet the country remains silent. The silence is cultural, legal, religious and lethal. Across hospitals, police stations, and homes, survivors of unsafe abortions are shamed, arrested, or ignored. They’re denied counseling. They’re denied compassion. In too many cases, they’re denied life-saving care. Meanwhile, society continues to debate whether they even deserve to be heard.
An estimated 465,000 abortions take place in The Kenyan Republic annually. The vast majority are unsafe. Many involve girls under the age of 20, operating in fear, secrecy, and despair. Girls in informal settlements resort to swallowing bleach, inserting sharp objects, or trusting untrained providers in unsafe environments.
These are not isolated tragedies, they are symptoms of a systemic crisis. Hospital records, NGO field reports, and journalistic investigations all reveal the same truth: the criminalisation of abortion is not preventing it; it is making it more dangerous.
The Kenyan Penal Code criminalises both women seeking abortion and the healthcare providers who assist them. A woman can face up to seven years in prison. A doctor, up to fourteen. These laws do not protect life, they push women into secrecy and risk. They criminalise survival.
The law does not distinguish between a teenager raped by a relative and a woman in medical distress. It does not protect survivors of gender-based violence. Instead, it punishes them.
Only two percent of learners in The Kenyan education system receive full, comprehensive sexuality education. Many girls reach adolescence without accurate information on menstruation, contraception, or pregnancy prevention. In some regions, myths about condoms, fertility, and menstruation are more common than factual knowledge.
This lack of education, combined with limited access to contraception, is driving the rise in teenage pregnancies and abortion-related complications. When girls are denied information, they are denied agency.
Religion is often used to justify abortion bans. But morality that ignores death is not morality, it’s dogma. Preaching abstinence does not heal hemorrhages. Condemning abortion does not reduce teenage pregnancy. What works, what actually saves lives, is education, access, empathy, and healthcare.
Countries like Argentina once held similar beliefs. But after years of public mobilization, they decriminalized abortion. The results? A dramatic drop in unsafe abortion deaths. Safe, legal access didn’t corrupt the nation, it saved its daughters.
To protect the lives, dignity, and rights of women and girls, The Kenyan state must act with urgency:
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Decriminalise abortion in law and policy, with clear, rights-based medical guidelines.
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Expand and fund reproductive healthcare, especially for marginalised and rural populations.
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Integrate comprehensive sexuality education into the national curriculum from primary level.
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Train healthcare and law enforcement officers to provide respectful, non-discriminatory support to women seeking care.
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Support survivor-led advocacy, ensuring that women with lived experiences are at the centre of reform.
The denial must end. The silence must end. If The Kenyan Republic claims to uphold the right to life, it must recognise that criminalising abortion is a direct contradiction of that principle.
No society that values women and girls can continue to allow them to bleed and die in shame and silence.
The time to speak is over. The time to act is now.
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