Seth Panyako, the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Secretary-General has defended the nurses who put birth control implants in 4 school girls aged 14-16 at the Emusanda Health Centre.
According to Panyako, there is no Kenyan law that requires adolescent girls to seek the permission of their parents before getting on contraceptives. For instance, Panyako terms the lawsuit filed by the parents of the adolescents as dead on arrival.
“Family planning protocol in Kenya is a documented government programme. If something has gone wrong, then it is the government that has gone wrong, [not the nurses who inserted the birth control implants in the girls],” Panyako said while addressing journalists in Kakamega.
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He added, “No child requires permission from her parent, teacher or adult to get birth control implants. The four children approached the community health worker and told her that they wanted the implants.”
Last week on Friday, parents of adolescent girls had filed a lawsuit against a nurse who administered contraceptives to their girls aged between 14 and 16 years.
Apparently, the girls who hailed from Mwiyala Village in Lurambi Constituency, had been approached by a community health officer, identified only as Gertrude, who convinced them to accompany her to Emusanda Health Centre, where she would “give them sanitary towels for free”.
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Upon arriving at the facility, the health officer reportedly administered birth controls on the girls’ arms.
The issue came to the limelight when one of the girls developed menstrual complications a month after the 3-year hormonal contraceptive was fitted.
The parents thus united and filed a police report at Lurambi Police Station, alluding that their daughters had been misled by a stranger.
The suspect, Gertrude is yet to be arrested and arraigned, according to Kakamega Central OCPD, David Kabena.
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