Stolen futures: The true cost of Kenya’s maternal health crisis
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba signs a commitment to making Kenya get a national policy to end obstetric violence against women, and promote respectful and dignified care before, during, and after childbirth by 2027.
What you need to know:
- The country’s maternal health crisis claims thousands of lives annually, shattering families and dreams.
- Survivors and advocates demand urgent systemic reforms to ensure quality care for mothers and newborns nationwide.
In the heart of Kenya, where the promise of new life should bring joy, a silent crisis unfolds. It's a crisis that claims the lives of mothers, leaving families shattered and communities in mourning. Kenya's maternal health emergency is largely a tale of negligence, inequality, and the urgent need for change.
June 16, is a day Beatrice Anyango will never forget—but not for the reasons she had hoped. The 32-year-old mother of five had walked into a health centre, her heart full of anticipation for her sixth child. Instead, she left days later with empty arms and a shattered spirit.
“Everything felt wrong from the start,” Beatrice recalls, her voice heavy with the weight of loss. Ignored in the waiting bay, she endured hours of labour alone. When a medic finally attended to her, he dismissed her pain, ridiculing her as “too old to complain about labour pains”.
As Beatrice recounts her ordeal, her words paint a vivid picture of a healthcare system in crisis.
“When my baby finally arrived, he didn't cry as expected,” she says, her eyes distant.
“Instead, he had some breathing difficulties as if his chest was congested.”
Moments later, he succumbed, leaving Beatrice and her husband to grapple with a profound sense of loss and injustice.
Beatrice's story is not an isolated incident.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022 report, 355 women die per 100,000 live births due to pregnancy-related causes.
This translates into nearly 5,000 women and girls dying annually – a staggering number that represents not just statistics, but dreams unfulfilled and families left to grieve.
Miles away, in the vast acacia-speckled plains of Kajiado County, Yiamat Pilinkon's ordeal paints an equally harrowing picture. A mother without babies, her memories are haunted by the names—Lemaiyan, Leshan, Neserian—chosen for the children she never got to hold or suckle.
“I suffered eight miscarriages,” Yiamat shares, her voice barely above a whisper.
“My pregnancies were crushed one by one by a rare uterine condition that remained undiagnosed until it was too late.”
The weight of her grief, exacerbated by the inaccessibility of healthcare in her remote village, reflects the unimaginable toll maternal health failures exact on women across Kenya.
These harrowing experiences were brought to light in a recent event, “Telling the Story, Calling for Change,” organised by the White Ribbon Alliance Kenya (WRA Kenya).
The event featured a documentary screening, “Stories of Mothers Lost, and Fathers Left Behind,” and the launch of a casebook, “Silent Tears, Voices of Loss.”
Angela Nguku, the founder & Executive Director of WRA Kenya, with a dummy of the Silent Tears, Voices of Loss casebook at the Sarova Panafric Hotel on September 5, 2024.
It brought together policymakers, community leaders, media champions, survivors, and all maternal and newborn health stakeholders to discuss and reflect on the state and quality of maternal healthcare in the country.
Skilled birth attendance
As the stories unfolded, the stark reality of Kenya's maternal health crisis became impossible to ignore.
While access to skilled birth attendance has improved from 62 per cent to about 70 per cent over the last seven years, more than 80 per cent of maternal deaths are attributed to poor quality of care. These numbers, however, fail to capture the human stories behind them – the dreams shattered, the families torn apart, and the communities left to pick up the pieces.
A recent World Health Organisation report adds a global perspective to this local crisis. Each day, more than 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, more than 5,000 babies are stillborn, and more than 6,400 children under one-month old die.
Behind each number is a life lost too soon, a family torn apart, and a community left to grieve in silence.
The cost of maternal mortality extends beyond individual women who lose their lives. Research shows that children who lose their mothers are more likely to suffer from malnutrition, poor health, and lower educational attainment.
The economic toll is also significant; families often fall into poverty due to the loss of a mother who is frequently the primary caregiver.
According to the World Bank, high maternal mortality rates are associated with slower economic growth because of the impact on children's future productivity.
Gathoni Wamuchomba, Githunguri Constituency MP, was among the attendees at the event. She shared her own heart-breaking maternal journey, bringing a personal and political dimension to the crisis.
“I am a mother of one although I would have wished to have 10,” she recounted sombrely.
“The people who should have advised me on what I needed to do to have more children did not.”
Gathoni's story highlights a critical issue in Kenya's maternal healthcare system: the lack of essential information provided to women.
“I was not aware that I was Rhesus Factor Negative till late,” she revealed.
“Even then, the medics attending to me did not disclose this in time. I sensed something was not right after I observed medics rushing to my bedside in urgency, ignoring all the other labouring mothers in the ward.”
The concept of obstetric violence—mistreatment of women during childbirth by healthcare providers, including physical abuse, humiliation, and non-consensual procedures—is a growing concern in Kenya.
Many women, especially those living with disabilities and adolescent mothers, fear going to the hospital for childbirth, opting instead for home births that often turn tragic due to complications that could have been managed in a clinical setting.
Emily Chesebe, a mother of three with a physical disability, knows all too well the pain of being mistreated by medical professionals. During her first pregnancy, a doctor told her that she couldn't carry her baby to term and was given medication to terminate it.
Against the odds, her baby was born prematurely but survived. However, the rude and uncaring treatment she received, coupled with the difficulty of accessing health facilities, left Emily distrustful of hospitals.
Her experience pushed her away from modern medicine, and during her second pregnancy, she sought help from traditional birth attendants, she reveals. Sadly, when her baby was born breech, the attendants were ill-equipped to handle the complication, leading to her baby's death and leaving Emily with serious injuries.
Hudson Shau's story further illustrates the devastating impact of inadequate maternal care. He experienced a devastating loss in 2016 when both his wife, Bevil, and their newborn died at a hospital in Bungoma County. His wife went into labour, and he rushed her to the hospital on a rocky road late at night.
Upon arrival, Hudson was told to wait outside while Bevil endured hours of pain. The hospital was understaffed, and the specialist meant to care for her was unreachable.
“After eight agonising hours, I learned my son had died,” Hudson, who attended the event too, shared, his voice breaking.
“My wife was in critical condition and needed urgent care, but the equipment was either unavailable or malfunctioning. Despite my prayers, she passed away due to internal bleeding.”
Hudson still believes their deaths could have been prevented with better healthcare services, and calls for improvements in public hospitals to focus more on maternal care.
In a panel discussion at the event, key policymakers and stakeholders in the newborn and maternal health sector agreed that quality maternal and newborn care requires the collaboration of all sectors.
Dr Kireki Omanwa, the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society president, emphasised the need for a holistic approach.
“We need accessible roads to ensure mothers reach hospitals in time, more qualified healthcare workers in dispensaries, medication, improved sanitation, and enough blood and other lifesaving supplies in all facilities,” he stated.
Eve Merin, a project officer at Enkakenya Sidai initiative in Kajiado County, emphasised the need to train women, especially in rural Kenya.
“If women were better educated, they could make more informed decisions about their health,” she argued.
Her sentiments are backed by data that shows higher levels of education among women is associated with better maternal health outcomes, such as increased use of antenatal care and health facilities during delivery.
Kenya’s gospel musician, media personality, and maternal health advocate Kambua shared her personal struggles in the maternal wards.
“I have had such a journey; first with barrenness and then with losing multiple children. This is not an easy journey, and I would not wish it on anybody,” she said.
Kambua emphasised that “transparency is key to building trust and improving the quality of maternal care.”
She called for regular audits of maternal health services and the publication of findings to ensure gaps in care are identified and addressed.
For Angela Nguku, the founder and Executive Director at WRA Kenya, these stories uncover the hidden inequalities within Kenyan counties by presenting real-life stories of mothers lost, unseen, babies unborn, and fathers and families left behind.
“Instead of relying on lifeless statistics, these stories bring to light the faces and emotions of these women and babies, humanising the issue and holding leaders accountable for their unfulfilled commitments,” she asserts.
Angela also emphasises the importance of economic empowerment as a tool for improving maternal and health outcomes.
“When women have control over financial resources, they can prioritise their health and that of their families,” she explains.
“Economic independence allows women to afford regular health check-ups during and after pregnancy, ensure their children are immunised, maintain a healthy diet, and adopt preventive health measures.”
This approach, she believes, not only highlights the stark realities but also serves as a call to action for leaders at all levels to honour their promises and drive meaningful change to improve the quality of maternal and health in the country.
“This calls for urgent action to ensure that the self-articulated reproductive, maternal and newborn health priorities and wants by women and newborns that centre primary healthcare are instituted.
“In addition, there is a dire need to position respectful maternity and newborn care, including self-care as a right and an essential part of the health system through strengthened policy dialogue and agenda-setting at the national, county, health facility and individual levels.”
The event culminated in the signing of commitments, with each member present making a pledge to do something in their capacity to improve the status of maternal and healthcare systems in the country.
“We intend to hold each person making the commitment accountable,” a staff member of WRA Kenya stated.
“We will keep a record and see how far they go with their signed commitments. Together we can change the narrative for our mothers and newborns.”
