Many women have nevermind experienced the right to decide on the number of children they want to give birth to, nor have they ever decided on the spacing of children within their reproductive and child-bearing cycle.
Though the freedom to choose how many children and when to have them is a fundamental human right, Gender-Based Violence continues depriving women in developing countries, Kenya in particular, of that right to exercise their sexual and reproductive health autonomy.
Such violence kills and disables women between the ages of 18 and 44.
In many parts of the world, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) is on the rise.
GBV knows no boundaries, economic, social, or geographic, and takes many forms, from domestic confrontations that leave millions of women worldwide living in fear of sexual abuse and rape, among other GBV incidents.
Every woman has the right to plan her pregnancies and have access to effective family planning methods to space or limit births and prevent unintended pregnancies.
The worst contributing factor hindering women’s sexual and reproductive health rights has been the conservative African culture and traditions.
In many traditional African societies, most women’s reproductive health decision-making, particularly on contraceptive use, is shaped by fear of violence from disapproving male partners.
The prevailing cultural beliefs and myths in such societies view embracing contraceptives and other family planning methods as tools promoting promiscuity among married women.
It is critical that in such a context, the communities have more say over the number of children a woman can give birth to without her being involved in making such decisions, which affects her sexual and reproductive health rights.
In such a scenario, a woman cannot use contraceptives or any family planning method unless she consults her husband or in-laws.
This means many women will continue being dictated on the number of children to give birth to either by their spouses, in-laws, or to a larger extent, their communities, something that will subject them to giving birth to children they cannot take care of.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines reproductive health rights as the recognition of the basic right of couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing, and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health.
Reproductive health rights also include receiving contraception and making choices free of coercion, discrimination and violence.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “It is men who usually decide on the number and variety of sexual relationships, timing and frequency of sexual activity and use of contraceptives, sometimes through coercion or violence.”
Mzee Joseph Oisosa from Sameta sub-county in Kisii County concurs with UNFPA that the Gusii community’s culture is against married women using contraceptives or any other modern family planning methods with the belief that such methods expose women to promiscuous behavior.
Oisosa argues that such beliefs and myths are entrenched in the Gusii community’s culture and traditions, which, more often than not, measure a man’s sexual fertility by the number of children he sires, with preference given to the number of sons he fathers.
He further discloses that “According to majority of the Gusii community men, a woman’s use of family planning contraceptives may be perceived as a challenge to her partner’s masculinity.”
A trained clinical nurse from Kisii County, preferring to be identified as Kerubo for this conversation, blames GBV against married women seeking family planning services on men’s failure to play their part in planning their families.
Ms. Kerubo says GBV against women seeking family planning services is widespread in the Gusii region because most men are reluctant to accompany their wives to reproductive health clinics for advice and counseling on family planning as they view the facilities as a ‘woman’s place’.
“Widespread myths and misconceptions about family planning continue exposing women seeking family planning methods in Gusii region to incidents of Gender-Based Violence with their male partners accusing them of embracing infidelity,” she notes.
Fearing violence from their male partners, Kerubo discloses that majority of her clients who seek injectable contraceptives at one of the primary health facilities where she works normally request her to write for them their next appointment date on a piece of paper from where they would mark the date on calendars at home to evade their male partners’ attention.
Kerubo regrets that many women in the Gusii region continued suffering in silence from the effects of GBV on their sexual and reproductive health rights due to a lack of economic empowerment, with most of the married women depending on their male partners financially.
She narrates an incident where one of her clients received a thorough beating from her drunk husband when she tried to negotiate with him for protected sex by using a condom out of her good intentions to curb unintended pregnancy.
She then chased her out of their matrimonial home at midnight.
She admits that such cases are common.
Kerubo discloses that “Wife beating on the grounds of demanding that their husbands use condoms in some extra-ordinary circumstances attracts men’s wrath due to misconceptions associated with condoms.”
The clinician argues that poor socialization of a section of men from the Gusii community on the use of condoms during sexual intercourse has led to some men believing that condoms are meant for men who are unfaithful to their wives.
Hence they subject them to beating and other forms of domestic violence when they try to negotiate for protected sex.
Josephine Kwamboka (not her real name) from Nyagancha village of Bassi Chache area in Kisii County admits that the majority of the married women seeking family planning services in the Gusii region face a serious threat of GBV from their male partners who are against family planning methods.
Kwamboka, a mother of two, recounts how her husband battered her after discovering that she was using family planning pills without his permission.
She discloses that her husband ransacked their bedroom, found the pills under the mattress, and threw them in the toilet after a thorough beating, warning her of dire consequences should he find her with them again.
“After the beating from my husband, I changed tact and went to a reproductive health clinic and asked to be given a family planning method that my husband would not discover. I have since been under a three-month injectable contraceptive,” says Kwamboka.
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According to Family Planning International Assistance (FPIA), women in Kenya are reported to have forged their partners’ signatures rather than risk violence or abandonment by requesting permission to use family planning services.
