Florence Machio is a journalist writing from Kenya. She has experience in reproductive health, global health and human rights and will be reporting on reproductive health in Africa.
A word of warning to African governments: don’t wait for Obama alone to provide contraceptive security for your female citizens.
The lack of security for women at the time of political unrest in Kenya meant that many women could not access medical help and saw no hope in reporting crimes against them.
While funding to address HIV/AIDS has skyrocketed, financial support for family planning in the developing world has dwindled.
The ugly face of violence reared its head in Kenya after the presidential elections of December, and I now know that crisis was a window into the status of women’s rights in Kenya and the gaps in responding to sexual and gender-based violence in this country.
For women in Africa, marriage is no protection against HIV. Their challenge is how to start negotiating for condom use 20 years into their marriages.
Since the crisis in Kenya began, I haven’t yet heard of a woman who picked up a machete and killed her neighbor. As in many conflict-ridden places in the world, women stand out as victims as well as the ones who are looking for peaceful means to resolve the situation.
Efforts to curtail the spread of HIV/AIDS are about to go to waste in Kenya, if the current political crisis is not dealt with fast. Widespread sexual violence, displacement, and lack of access to providers are all contributing to the spread of the disease.
As you American readers prepare to vote for President in November, please remember the women of Africa. Never has the American debate over abortion become clearer to us in Africa than during the Bush administration.
African governments are still taking donor funding for HIV prevention with conditions that they know do not work — and youth are stuck with inadequate information about how to prevent themselves from the consequences of sex.
As is usual with political upheaval, the crisis in Kenya is falling heavily on women and children.
