Woman and high school student arrested for attempted abortion
A middle-aged woman and a Form Three student were arrested on Sunday after they were allegedly caught planning to procure an abortion.
The 18-year-old girl from a school in Nakuru County had traveled to Bomet to seek the help of the 50-years-old woman to terminate her 6-month pregnancy.
According to Bomet Township Chief Reuben Ngetich, the girl had already paid Sh2,000 for the service.
“We ambushed them in one of the homes at Motigo village in Bomet and found that the girl has already paid Sh2,000 for the service, she was still having a pending Sh500 in order for the services to be rendered,” said the chief.
ILLEGAL PRACTICE
According to the residents, the middle-aged woman has been engaged in the illegal practice for long but she has never been implicated before.
The girl is currently being held at Bomet Police Station after she was taken to Longisa County Referral Hospital for examination.
Abortion is illegal in Kenya unless the pregnancy puts the mother’s life in danger and anyone found guilty of the act is liable to imprisonment for upto 14 years.
UNSAFE ABORTION
A study by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) and the Ministry of Health (MoH) between 2012 and 2016 found that Kenya used more than Sh500 million tackling unsafe abortion cases.
The money was used for medication, medical procedures to treat severe bleeding, organ failure, genital trauma and sepsis, a life-threatening complication from an infection.
The report titled The Costs of Treating Unsafe Abortion Complications in Public Health Facilities in Kenya shows that three out of four unsafe abortion-related admissions in Kenya are managed in post-abortion care wards in public health facilities.