By Hortense Minishi, Deputy Executive Director and Head of Programmes, KELIN – October 2025
Guardians of the Right to Health
2025 has been a defining year for reproductive justice in Kenya: a year when communities, courts, and counties stepped forward to defend constitutional rights with renewed courage and clarity in the face of countless challenges.
For more than twenty years, the Kenya Legal and Ethical Issues Network (KELIN) has championed the right to health for all, standing shoulder to shoulder with communities often left on the margins. Guided by Kenya’s Constitution and rooted in lived realities, KELIN’s mission has always been clear: to protect and promote the right to health and health related human rights for all. KELIN has over the decades lived up to this mission by advocating for transformative systems, laws, and policies that equitably determine people’s access to health and justice.
From courtrooms to county assemblies, from grassroots dialogues to national policy tables, our work has been animated by one conviction — that health is a human right, not a privilege. We believe that communities are not passive beneficiaries of reform but active co-creators of the frameworks that protect their health, dignity, and humanity. This commitment finds expression in our guiding mantra: Reclaiming Rights. Rebuilding Lives. It is both a philosophy and a practice — one that insists that state accountability and community empowerment must move hand in hand if justice is to take root.
Rights in Action: 2025 in Focus
The year 2025 has tested the resilience of Kenya’s sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) landscape. Across the country, communities have faced persistent stigma, shrinking civic space, underfunded health systems, and resurgent anti-rights movements. Yet, amid these challenges, two powerful milestones: one born in the courts, the other in county policy reform, have reaffirmed that our Constitution is alive and enforceable.
On 2 October 2025, the High Court of Kenya delivered a landmark ruling in the National Reproductive Health Policy 2022–2032 case- Petition No. 27 of 2022. Just weeks earlier, on 20 August 2025, the Governor of Kilifi County signed into law a new Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) Act, a progressive statute emerging directly from a constitutional petition instituted and led by KELIN since 2022.
Together, these developments tell a single, hopeful story: that advocacy and litigation are twin engines of transformation — one shaping ideas, the other enforcing them — and both essential to the pursuit of health justice.
The Judicial Win: Reaffirming Constitutional Legitimacy in Policy
In Rachael Mwikali & Others v Cabinet Secretary for Health (Petition No. 27 of 2022), the petitioners — among them KELIN — challenged Kenya’s National Reproductive Health Policy 2022–2032 for lack of meaningful public participation thereby excluding key community voices and for provisions that undermined women’s and adolescents’ reproductive rights.
While the Court upheld much of the policy including that there was sufficient public participation, it struck down one crucial clause, paragraph 12 of clause 3.4.1, which required healthcare providers to weigh the “highest attainable standard of health of the unborn child” before allowing an abortion. The Court ruled that this language contravened Article 26(4) of the Constitution, which permits abortion when, in a trained health professional’s opinion, a woman’s life or health is in danger or as allowed by law. By removing this clause, the Court reaffirmed reproductive autonomy and upheld women’s and girls’ constitutional right to safe and lawful abortion services.
“This ruling reminds us that the Constitution is not just aspirational- it is the supreme law of the land and is binding — and through strategic litigation, governments can be held accountable so that reproductive rights stay protected.”- Catherine Namulanda, Legal Associate Counsel, KELIN
Although a partial win, the judgment stands as a significant milestone for reproductive justice and a reminder that health policy must always advance — not restrict — constitutional rights. The Court further reiterated that the right to health under Article 43(1)(a) and equality under Article 27 must be applied without discrimination on any ground, including gender, age, health status, or sexual orientation. In doing so, it strengthened Kenya’s constitutional commitment to dignity, equality, and non-discrimination in the delivery of health services.
The Court further underscored that HIV testing, must be consensual and recognized the persistent barriers that limit young people access to sexual and reproductive health information and services. These findings remind us that even as litigation secures important constitutional guarantees, advocacy remains vital to transform legal victories into meaningful changes and lived experience, ensuring that participation, consent, and access are not only protected in law but realized in practice. Ultimately this judgment affirms that reproductive health policies cannot regress on rights already enshrined in law, they must move us forward, not backward.
The Legislative Win: Collaborative Reforms in Kilifi County
At the county level, another victory was quietly taking shape — this time through collaboration and dialogue inspired by litigation. In KELIN v County Government of Kilifi & Another (Petition No. E002 of 2022), KELIN challenged the Kilifi County Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Act, 2016, which had severely restricted access to abortion, allowed HIV testing of minors without parental or guardian consent, and was passed without meaningful public participation. The case became a test of constitutional accountability under devolution. By contesting these provisions, KELIN demonstrated how strategic litigation can breathe life into constitutional principles — turning advocacy into action, and law into a living instrument for justice and accountability.
What followed was remarkable. In 2023, the Court directed the parties to engage in out of court consultations to align the law with constitutional standards. After two years of sustained dialogue and advocacy, the County Government responded — even before final judgment. On 20 August 2025, Kilifi’s Governor, Hon. Gideon Mungáro assented to the Kilifi RMNCAH Act, 2025, which corrected the unconstitutional provisions, strengthened reproductive rights in line with Article 26(4), and improved adolescents’ access to reproductive health information and services. This win is a reminder that justice need not always be adversarial — it can also be collaborative, restorative, and forward-looking.
“We have lived with the weight of bad laws for years. Watching this Act change even before the Court ruled shows that justice doesn’t start with a judgment — it starts when our lived experiences and our voices are finally taken seriously.”
— Community Resident, Kilifi County
KELIN now awaits the Court’s final judgment on the case, confident it will reflect both constitutional principles and the county’s demonstrated good will— affirming that true justice lies in progressive rights-based governance and centers the needs of the people.
Advocacy and Litigation: The Twin Engines of Change
Both the RH Policy judgment and the Kilifi RMNCAH Act embody KELIN’s belief that advocacy and litigation are two sides of the same coin. Advocacy amplifies community voices, shapes policy, and builds political will. Litigation enforces accountability, sets precedent, and secures remedies when rights are violated. Together, they ensure that health justice is not a theoretical promise but a lived reality.
Advocacy prevents harm by shaping law and policy through dialogue and participation, while litigation safeguards their integrity through judicial oversight and accountability. Each strengthens the other — advocacy informs the law, and litigation upholds it — together nurturing a culture of justice where citizens, courts, and governments share a collective responsibility in shaping a more just health system that is equitable, participatory, and grounded in human dignity.
Justice Beyond the Courtroom
The journey from the courtrooms of Nairobi to the county halls of Kilifi tells a profound truth: justice is not confined to court corridors — it lives where people demand accountability and where governments choose tolisten.
These victories are not just institutional achievements — they are stories of communities that refused to be silenced. They affirm that democracy deepens when ordinary people become co-authors of the laws that govern their lives. For KELIN, they also reaffirm that progress is possible when the Constitution is treated as a living document — one animated by the principles of human rights, participation, equality, and dignity.
Looking Ahead Together
The work ahead is to ensure that these gains translate into everyday realities. Implementation, monitoring, and continued advocacy will determine whether rights secured on paper become protections enjoyed in life.
As KELIN moves forward, we invite partners, policymakers, and communities to walk with us — to demand accountability, to champion rights-based governance, and to stand firm against regression.
Together, we can build a Kenya where the Constitution’s promise of dignity, equality, justice and the highest attainable standard of health is not only upheld but fully lived.
‘’ We are far from the finish line — but this is what real progress looks like. Advocacy compels us to confront hard truths, and litigation ensures the law rises to meet human rights in practise’’ – Hortense Minishi, Deputy Executive Director and Head of Programmes.
