By; News room
The Catholic Church, leaders and parents in a Catholic school in Kenya have demanded the arrest of pro-abortion activists who visited a secondary school in Kitui County and administered birth control measures to students between 14 and 17 years of age without their parents’ consent.
The activists from Marie Stopes Kenya, an organisation that advocates for women’s rights to have children by choice, visited Archbishop Boniface Lele Secondary School in Mang’elu, Kitui West, on Wednesday as the world celebrated The Day of the Girl Child.
They gave the teenagers birth control medication, including the Norplant – a hormone-infused rod used to prevent pregnancy that is inserted under the skin, normally in the upper arm, which is said to stop pregnancy for up to five years.
The Norplant has side effects, including prolonged and irregular menstrual bleeding, breast pain, vomiting, weight gain, scalp hair loss, among others.
Angry parents say the girls, were duped into taking family planning drugs and some have withdrawn their girls from the school for treatment and demanded Marie Stopes to be held accountable for any health risks and the school principal held liable for negligence and surrendering the safety of the girls to strangers.
Harriet Owire, who led the Marie Stopes team, said they only counselled individual students after the main lecture on reproductive health but failed to discuss claims that they administered birth control pills.
Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua condemned the incident and urged the Ministry of Education to investigate the incident.
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