KENYA: Pro-lifers Decry High Mortality Rate, Call Parliamentarians to Promote Right to Life
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Members of a coalition that brings together individuals and organizations in Africa and other continents whose aim is protection of life and family in Kenya and around the world, have raised concern on the high death rate of mothers and unborn children in Kenya, asking the government to protect the “Right to life starting at conception.”
In a press statement released Friday, March 4, officials of the group dubbed us Empowered Youth Coalition (EYC) bemoaned that the increasing rate of deaths of mothers and unborn children in the nation and the horn of Africa “Is through deliberate termination of pregnancy,” yet “No law-abiding citizen, medical provider, religious leader or politician elected under our constitution should support the deliberate killing of preborn children.”
In their address to Kenyans and people of good will, the coalition whose member organizations in Africa include Prolife – Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Uganda Martyrs Pro-life Apostolate, Kenya Christian Professionals Forum (KCPF) and Little Servants of Mary Immaculate sisters, asked parliamentarians in Kenya “To reject bills in parliament that would convert our country to an altar of murder.”
They urged parliamentarians especially leaders who publicly took “Oath before the Almighty God to protect and promote the country’s supreme law, the Constitution…, to only promote legislation that would seek to protect, rather than destroy, the right to life starting at conception.”
As Article 26 of Kenyan Constitution protects right to life, the pro-lifers say in their Friday message, “Our Justices need to uphold the Kenyan Constitution…since it does not allow for the termination of a pregnancy by deliberately killing the unborn person.”
They further called on religious and community leaders “To push back on the urging of legalization and normalization of foeticide, warning that “We must stand strong against selling the sovereignty of our nation and the continent to the highest bidder.”
They added: “It is high time religious and community leaders got more deeply involved in the selection and election of political candidates to ensure those who stand for the protection of life and family are voted in while those who support the killing of the unborn children or destruction of the family are rejected.”
In condemning abortion as an act that destroys “innocent life,” officials of the coalition whose objective is to unite and equip youths worldwide with the tools to effectively promote, protect and defend life and family emphasized that, “Terminating a pregnancy by deliberately killing an unborn child, especially by trained health professional, is immoral, unethical and unconstitutional in Kenya!
In conclusion, they reminded all leaders in the country and those across the continent; “including at the AU (African Union), EALA (East African Legislative Assembly), SADC (The Southern African Development Community) and national houses in our nations, that the laws governing any nation belong to the people and are for the people; let us protect and pass laws that protect the common good.”
