Getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy in Kenya is a tall order seeing as abortion is illegal unless the life of the mother is at risk.
Seeking abortion services is also expensive as are contraceptive measures. This then has seen a rise in cases of infanticide.
Infanticide can be described as the deliberate killing of a child under the age of 1 year.
Read: Two More Foetuses Recovered In Nairobi River During Clean Up Exercise
In the May alone, a task force cleaning up the “murky” waters of Nairobi River discovered eight infant bodies, something that is apparently not unusual.
According to the Telegraph, Kenyan mothers are feeding their infants Coca cola, a fizzy soft drink, instead of breast milk.
The drink is said to cause organ failure in a matter of days.
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“You can imagine giving a small baby Coca-Cola instead of breast milk – it can’t last more than three days,” Vincent Odhiambo, a human rights activist in Kibera told the publication.
A Coca Cola company representative spoke on the issue noting that “The recent reports of newborn deaths in Kenya are deeply distressing and our deepest sympathies go out to the women and children who face such desperate situations.
“We know soft drinks are safe and can be enjoyed by many people around the world. However, it is widely recognized that milk is all that newborns need,” they are quoted by Daily Mail.
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The largest cause of infanticide is unwanted pregnancies due to the unavailability of affordable abortion services.
Unlicensed abortionists, Telegraph details, will help expectant women too far along in their pregnancies give birth and then with a hammer blow to the head, the child is killed.
Sometimes, during this procedure, the women die as well.
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While medics would like to offer legal abortions, those caught in the act risk being jailed for 14 years, as was the case of a Kenyan nurse who was sentenced to death after being found guilty of carrying out an abortion on a woman who later bled to death in 2014.
At least 350,000 Kenyan women a year risk having an unsafe abortion while 21,000 others are admitted to hospital as a result.
Poverty also contributes to the high cases of abortions and infanticide. Some women give birth to children they can not take care of while others are too young or too poor to offer the children basic needs.
There have been a rise in cases in which infants are dumped in toilets, dumpsites.
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