The Constitution provides for accessible, affordable, non-judgmental, non-discriminative highest attainable standards of healthcare, including reproductive health.
However, we have failed terribly in prioritising reproductive health services and information to men and women residing in areas affected by humanitarian crises caused by climate change, inter-communal wars, post-election violence and natural calamities.
A huge section of Kenya's topography is arid and semi-arid areas; these areas hardly receive enough rainfall to sustain vegetation, clean drinking water and water for livestock consumption.
More often, the ASALs are greatly affected by droughts and cattle rustling, and therefore men and women keep migrating in search of water and greener pasture for their livestock to survive.
In some parts of ASALs, residents undertake subsistence farming of maize and beans, which eventually dry up due to a lack of adequate rainfall.
It is estimated that 3.1 million people are experiencing a humanitarian crisis and little is done to address their suffering and situation.
The aid that the government and NGOs always provide is not always enough to sustain the citizens in ASALs.
The aid is often short on reproductive health and other primary healthcare services.
More importantly, it is worth noting that humanitarian crises do not hibernate residents' reproductive health needs.
The humanitarian crisis singled out the prioritisation of reproductive health services over food and water.
A woman in humanitarian crisis-stricken areas will spend all her hard-earned money on buying food at the expense of repeat clinics for contraceptives.
The distance to the nearest healthcare facility is very long and denies them access to lifesaving reproductive health services.
Adolescent girls and young women in humanitarian crises continue to register adverse reproductive health outcomes largely due to inequalities of timely access to comprehensive reproductive health services.
By extension, the triple threat that encompasses new HIV infections, unplanned pregnancy, and sexual gender-based violence is very mind-boggling in ASALs.
According to UNFPA, more than 500 women die in pregnancy or childbirth every day in humanitarian and fragile settings. The Reproductive Health Policy’s (2022-2032) overall goal is to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity in Kenya.
If we go by the same trend of depriving girls and women in humanitarian settings of access to reproductive health services, very little gains will be achieved in reducing the 352 deaths per 100,000 live births among adolescent girls.
Moreover, there will be no universal health coverage by sidelining the resident going through a humanitarian crisis, because the affordability of healthcare services is core in UHC.
There is a dire need for the Ministry of Health to focus its pool of resources on the provision of timely sexual reproductive health services in ASALs grappling with a humanitarian crisis.
CEO of Angaza Youth Initiative
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
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