• A lot of funding for Sexual Reproductive Health comes from the United States, putting Kenya at its mercy.
• With the bill, Kenya and other East African countries will be taking their reproductive health rights into their own hands.
Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) activists have said that the East African Community SRHR bill will focus solely on Africans’ needs.
Speaking in a Twitter Space discussion organised by activists and Reproductive rights advocates on Monday, Stephanie Musho, a human rights lawyer, said it would help East Africans stand on their own in terms of sexual reproductive health.
“In Kenya, 95% of the money that is spent on reproductive health and rights comes from the United States yet sexual reproductive health is a responsibility of the Government and a right that is well articulated in the constitution,” she said.
She said that the landmark court decision overturning the United States’ abortion law known as Roe Vs Wade, affected sexual reproductive rights in Kenya greatly.
The funding from their Planned Parenthood programme was vital to SRHR programmes in Kenya.
Musho said that it was important for Kenya to not be at the mercy of western countries in matters as fundamental as reproductive health.
The bill which was tabled by Kennedy Mukulia, a Member of the East African Legislative Assembly, will see that Universal Healthcare across East African countries integrates sexual reproductive health needs to it.
“It would also provide for appropriate Comprehensive Sexual Education in order to help more Africans be more aware of their sexual reproductive health and rights in a subjective manner specific to cultural and even traditional beliefs of a person,” she said.
Musho said that age-appropriate Information Education Services would also see elderly persons’ reproductive needs focused on.
“When we think about age-appropriate sexual reproductive health, we often think about adolescents but elderly persons also have their needs," she said.
"Issues such as andropause which is the equivalent of menopause in men, are also addressed. The bill is inclusive of men and persons with disability.”
Mukulia said that the bill will seek to put an end to harmful practices against women and girls in East Africa as well.
“East African countries including Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, have had issues with girls’ return to school after getting pregnant and obstacles such as period poverty,” he added.
“The bill prohibits harmful practices such as gender-based violence, early marriages, and female genital mutilation which are rife among East African Countries.”
He said that they are working on a mechanism to help all EAC countries be at the same level in terms of their health services in order to implement the bill at a fairly same pace.
To ensure adherence to the rule of law, all EAC countries will have to report back to the Secretary-General of the community every two years over their progress in implementing the bill.
The secretary-general will write a report and table at the Assembly.
“The East African Court of Justice can also be used to provide checks and balances where for example Rwanda can table the secretary-general’s report and sue Kenya for failing to implement the bill and pulling the community behind,” Musho said.
Mukulia added that public hearings and civic education for the bill would be heard in Kenya on June 29, and Kenyans could submit their views or opinions to the bill’s committee clerk online.