On 25th June 2025, the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN) joined representatives from Afya na Haki (AHAKI), International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW) and IPAS Alliance in an engaging panel discussion at the 8th Pan-African Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) Scientific Conference organized by the Reproductive Health Network Kenya (RHNK) in Mombasa, Kenya. The session explored strategies to confront the criminalization of SRHR in Africa, especially geared to address the increasing risks faced by women, girls and heath care service providers when accessing or providing SRHR services. The panel session was timely owing to the increasing threat against SRHR, given growing anti-rights narratives particularly on issues such as access to safe and legal abortion.
The Guttmacher Institute estimates that 6.2 million unsafe abortions occur in sub Saharan Africa each year—77 percent of the continental total—driving sepsis, infertility and disability1.WHO attributes 4.7–13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide to unsafe abortion, with sub Saharan Africa carrying the heaviest burden; the region also shoulders nearly 90 percent of global HIV related maternal deaths, a figure that rises when pregnancy itself is criminalised.For those who survive, the carceral response exacts socioeconomic penalties: separation from children, loss of livelihoods, and criminal records that foreclose future employment while scarce public health funds are diverted to policing.
Across many of the Sub-Saharan Africa countries, colonial-era penal codes continue to regulate sexuality and reproduction conduct. Provisions drafted in the nineteenth century and transplanted wholesale at independence continue to criminalise abortion, pregnancy loss, same-sex intimacy, HIV “exposure”, and sex work. These laws do more than condemn conduct: they convert public health concerns into offences against the State and propel women, girls and providers into the criminal justice system. The panelists unpacked these harmful legal inheritances and charted a path forward centered on afro-centric reproductive justice litigation. They also affirmed that enduring laws are not inherently just, and across the continent, both courts and communities are actively resisting them.
KELIN is committed to creating more awareness through cross-learning to build evidence and jurisprudence to not only address the criminalization of SRHR in Kenya and regionally, but also to tackle the growth of anti-rights rhetoric. As the silence breaks, a new movement is emerging—one that reclaims care, reshapes the law, and redefines justice.
Dr Jessica Oga, Head of Regionalism at AHAKI called on both individuals and CSOs to be part of a critical mass of people who can effectively advocate for and litigate reproductive justice by joining Africa Reproductive Justice Litigation Alliance (ARJLA) - an Afro centric reproductive justice movement for Africa. To join ARJLA kindly visit https://www.afyanahaki.org/ or click on this hyperlink.
“Afro-centric reproductive justice movements such as the Africa Reproductive Justice Litigation Alliance (ARJLA) are key to dismantling systemic historical barriers to SRHR. ARJLA is an inclusive Alliance that seeks to strengthen national legal support networks to enhance reproductive justice litigation in Africa, enhance the capacities of reproductive justice actors regionally, conduct research, document and disseminate evidence that supports reproductive justice litigation regionally.” Highlighted Ms. Elsie Milimu, Program Officer at KELIN.
To contribute to the discussions on this forum, follow KELIN on our website and social media platforms.
Website: www.kelinkenya.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kelinkenya
Twitter(X): @KELINKenya.
For more information please contact, Elsie Milimu,
Program Officer- SRHR, Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV/AIDS(KELIN),
Email: elsiemilimu@kelinkenya.org
