Childbirth is one of life’s most precious and vulnerable moments. It should be filled with joy, relief, and gratitude. Yet for many women in Kenya, it turns into trauma and humiliation.
Across several hospitals, mothers are being detained—sometimes with their newborn babies—simply because they cannot afford to pay their medical bills. These women are treated not as patients who need care, but as criminals trapped in a system that punishes poverty.
Hospitals argue that they must recover costs, but detaining mothers is neither legal nor humane. Poverty is not a crime.
Kenya’s Constitution is clear.
Article 43 guarantees every citizen the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including reproductive care.
Article 53 affirms every child’s right to parental care and protection.
Detaining mothers and babies for unpaid hospital bills violates both of these rights. It also breaches international human rights agreements such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, both ratified by Kenya.
The Kenyan High Court has ruled repeatedly that hospitals have no legal authority to hold patients for debt. Yet the practice continues, often quietly, in both public and private facilities.
Imagine Chepkemoi, a small market vendor earning less than Ksh. 200 a day. She delivers her baby safely, but complications arise, leading to a Ksh. 15,000 bill she cannot pay. Her husband sells their only goat, but it isn’t enough.
Days turn into weeks. The hospital refuses to discharge her. She sleeps on a metal bed, holding her newborn close, surrounded by other detained mothers. What was supposed to be a healing space becomes a place of shame.
Behind every number in this crisis is a story like Chepkemoi’s of families broken, dignity stripped, and children beginning life in captivity.
We must end this cruelty. Health facilities have legal ways to recover money such as structured payment plans or civil court claims without detaining patients.
The government must also ensure that free maternity programs, such as Linda Jamii and the Social Health Authority (SHA), are fully funded and accessible. Maternity care must be free not just in policy, but in practice.
The private sector and non-profits can establish emergency maternal funds to help the poorest families, while community savings groups can create local safety nets for unexpected health emergencies.
Hospitals have bills to pay, yes but human life and dignity must come first. Detaining mothers and babies is not health policy; it is cruelty disguised as necessity.
No woman should be punished for giving life. No child should begin their journey behind hospital bars.
As a nation, we must choose compassion over profit, justice over shame, and humanity over humiliation. Because when a mother brings a new life into the world, the least we can do is honor her dignity not imprison her for being poor.
