Kenya Faces Rising Maternal Debt Crisis

For Laurence Omondi, receiving distressing calls about mothers detained in hospitals is a familiar and deeply personal experience. One recent call, however, has resonated particularly strongly: a teenage mother who had given birth to a preterm baby in a public hospital, only to be detained when she couldn’t pay the bill after the infant did not survive.

The young mother spent an entire month inside the hospital, witnessing other mothers cradle their newborns and prepare to go home while she grieved her loss and remained unable to leave. Omondi describes her mental state as “completely shattered,” noting she was “frustrated, fragile, and in deep pain, punished simply because she was poor.” The bill stood at Sh40,000, an amount her family, including her mother, a laundry worker, could not raise.

Detention of Mothers

For Omondi, the detention of mothers in hospitals is unacceptable. He argues that only criminals should be detained and that hospitals have no legal or moral right to hold women hostage. What concerns him most is that this is not an isolated case; several major hospitals have repeatedly faced scrutiny over the detention of mothers unable to pay medical bills.

Through the Machozi Ya Mwisho Initiative, Omondi and his team have taken health facilities to court, demanding accountability and respect for the rights and dignity of women. The organization challenges hospitals to seek humane and lawful alternatives to debt recovery, firmly insisting that detaining mothers is illegal. Omondi questions, “What other alternatives can hospitals use to recover their money, other than locking up poor mothers who are simply trying to survive?”

He emphasizes that the issue extends beyond unpaid bills, encompassing justice, dignity, and the fundamental right of every woman to receive care without fear of punishment for her poverty. Cases vary, but poverty remains the root cause. Some women are held for weeks or months over amounts as low as Sh3,000 to Sh5,000, with teenage mothers particularly vulnerable.

Reaching hospitals on behalf of detained mothers is often met with silence. Families often contact the organization in desperation, reporting their daughters are locked inside hospital wards. Securing releases is handled case-by-case, sometimes requiring public demonstrations or court intervention. While well-wishers occasionally step in to clear bills, Omondi insists this should not be the standard solution.

Omondi believes that free or extremely affordable maternal healthcare is possible, arguing that the cost of dignified care is lower than the long-term social and emotional damage caused by detention. In 2025, a rare moment of relief occurred when a well-wisher cleared bills for over 100 women detained at Mama Lucy Hospital, but many others across the country remain trapped.

Human dignity and mental health

For the Machozi Ya Mwisho Initiative, the fight is about human dignity, mental health, and the right of every woman to give birth without fear of imprisonment for poverty. Amina, a resident of Majengo, experienced this firsthand. After giving birth, she was detained due to her inability to pay the Sh5,000 bill, having lost her job and struggling to survive.

She remained in the ward for two days, witnessing other mothers leave while she was unable to. The shame and fear affected her ability to breastfeed, and she recalls the emotional weight of being left behind. “The shame is heavy,” she says. “People whisper. You see them pointing. Nurses keep asking you, ‘When are you going home?’”

Detention in hospitals

Reports indicate that across Kenya, the detention of mothers in health facilities due to unpaid medical bills is a widespread issue. At Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital in Nairobi, over 100 mothers were stranded due to unpaid bills, some exceeding Sh100,000. Similarly, over 30 mothers remained at Thika Level 5 Hospital with unpaid bills ranging from Sh30,000 to Sh95,000. At Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, at least 27 mothers were held for unpaid medical costs.

Human rights organizations and legal advocates condemn these practices as violations of human rights and dignity. While officials sometimes attribute delays to administrative processes, the emotional toll on mothers and families remains profound. These incidents highlight gaps in health financing and the implementation of universal health coverage.

There is ongoing debate in Kenya regarding criminalizing the detention of patients for unpaid bills. The Health (Amendment) Bill, 2025, proposes making it illegal for both public and private institutions to hold patients or corpses over unpaid fees. The Ministry of Health opposes this proposal, arguing that non-payment should be handled administratively.