THE REPRODUCTION HEALTHCARE BILL, 2014: SHOULD ADOLESCENT SCHOOL CHILDREN BE GIVEN CONDOMS AND CONTRACEPTIVES?

Should your adolescent child be given a condom to ensure he does not impregnate a girl in school? Should your adolescent girl be given contraceptive pills without your consent to pop them out whenever she needs them? This are the questions that will be answered once the fate of The Reproduction Healthcare Bill, 2014 is determined by the August House and if it sails through then be sure your child will have these entire product within his or her reach.

The Reproductive Healthcare Bill, 2014 is a long awaited bill which will play a fundamental role in improving accuses and provision of medical services. For instance it provides for the requirements for surrogate parenthood agreement, it provides for establishment of a level five hospital in every county and each to at least to have five ambulances. It further provides for emergency treatment and clarifies issues concerning abortion as enshrined in the constitution.

The most controversial provisions are the section of the bill that deals with Adolescent Reproductive healthcare. The bill provides that adolescent shall have access to condoms and contraceptives but it is silent on how the children will be given access to contraceptives and condoms. The public is then left to predict where the condoms and contraceptives will be provided and since a school is the place where there is a great number of children and where adolescent children spend most of their lifetime then provision of condoms and contraceptives in school will be the place.  More so the innuendo of the bill is that it acknowledges the fact that children as early as ten(10) years engage in premarital sex and hence it seeking to provide means for them to have sex in a safe way  without consequences such as being pregnant or contacting HIV/AIDS.

Statistic done by Kenya Bureau of Statistics and various organizations shows that there are approximately 10 million adolescent children, this is 25% of the Kenya population. Statistics further show that 31.4% of the teenagers by the age of 16 already had sex, 56% of teenage girls in urban areas already use contraceptives, four out of ten girls get pregnant while in school, 8% of teenage girls drop out of school due to pregnancy, 23% of teenage girls are teenage mothers and HIV/AIDS prevalence among the teenagers is at 830 new infections per day (globally). If these statistics are true then these bill is a savior to our teenagers because their well-being is very fundamental to our country.

But the Bill may not address the root cause of the problem which is parenting. Parents have failed to undertake their obligation to ensure that the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society and the basis of social order to be the learning base where good morals are passed to children, Instead parents have given this duty to politicians to rear their children through such Bills. Kenya is a failed state of morality if such policies are what will determine the conduct of children in Kenya.