A generation of middle-aged Kenyan women is dying in a cervical cancer epidemic that few are talking about. Cancer, especially of women’s reproductive organs is now common in low-income neighbourhoods, but the disease is shrouded in silence due to shame culture, lack of sex education and stigma around sexually transmitted illnesses.
Every year, about 5,236 Kenyan women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and about 60 per cent of them (3,211) die, according to the World Health Organisation’s latest data. The number could be more, given that many cases go unreported.
