Kenya’s child adoption cases are rising and many parents are commissioning women to give birth on their behalf, and such children require the same care as would infants born to a natural mother.
Data from the Kenya Fertility Society estimates that about two in every 10 couples in Kenya face fertility challenges.
That MPs have deleted sections of a Bill that would have compelled employers to give leave to parents of adopted children or those born through surrogacy means that Kenya still regard assisted parenthood not as a natural part of life that deserves legal protection.
A new law would have given adoptive, surrogacy, and birth parents equal fully-paid leave, but now they have been left at the mercy of haggling with their employers to get time off or use their annual leave days to bond and care for their adopted children or those born through surrogacy.
Kenya’s child adoption cases are rising and many parents are commissioning women to give birth on their behalf, and such children require the same care as would infants born to a natural mother. Data from the Kenya Fertility Society estimates that about two in every 10 couples in Kenya face fertility challenges, meaning that if they fail to give birth naturally, they will adopt children from foster care homes, do in vitro fertilisation (IVF) or commission a surrogate.
In rejecting the Bill, President Uhuru Kenyatta cited the absence of a substantive legal and regulatory framework governing surrogacy in Kenya.
The return of the Bill to Parliament by Mr Kenyatta with a memorandum asking MPs to amend Clause 3 by deleting sub-clause (4), (5), and (6) should have sparked a fresh debate into assisted reproduction laws. Rather than scrap parts of the Bill, Parliament should have strengthened the Reproductive Health Bill 2019 in alignment with new parenthood trends.
The Reproductive Health Bill 2019, has stalled yet it has crucial surrogacy, family planning, termination of pregnancy, and assisted reproduction laws. For instance, commissioning parents would no longer have to adopt their children from surrogate mothers. The commissioning parent or commissioning parents will be named as the parents of the child and the child acquires their citizenship. The surrogate mother or spouse or relative is also protected against claims of succession by the child. And in the event of multiple pregnancies arising in surrogate parenthood, there shall be no contentions as the law stipulates that the children shall belong to the commissioning parents.
Times have changed. Kenya should modernise its reproductive health laws, including legalising paid surrogacy and ensuring equal rights to all parents.
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