Why ‘Mama Mboga’ approach is critical for sexual and reproductive health rights

I once visited a foreign country during winter and couldn’t wait to return to the warmth of my motherland. For the first time, I saw living dead trees with no leaves. I came to understand a friend’s mantra that “when the desirable is not available, the available becomes desirable”. I’ll explain.

The ordinary Kenyan is popularly referred to as ‘Mama Mboga’ – which is Kiswahili for a simple woman who sells vegetables. Mama Mboga relies on rumour where she has no verifiable information. Although it’s unclear when, how and why this reference came to be, it fits well. Only a small percentage of Kenyan women sell vegetables for a living, but the description of Mama Mboga serves journalists in telling whether the language of their stories is suitable. If Mama Mboga can read your story and understand it, you’ve written well. But Mama Mboga, which can also apply to men, is also a useful standard for judging what is relevant. A journalist can write a story about “the disambiguation of examination standardisation in taxpayer-sponsored schools”, but a story on “why children from public schools need less exams” is more likely to attract Mama Mboga’s attention.

So what about the winter trees story? When snow falls, water is present in the form of solid ice, but for the tree to use it and grow, it must be warmed and broken down to liquid form. This brings me to sexual and reproductive health rights. Kenyan media have recently carried stories about condom shortages, poor health services in public hospitals and mothers dying as a result of pregnancy complications. Such stories are the kind referred to as “human interest stories”. They have a ‘human being’ as their centrepiece and there is ‘interest’ in them because they tell ‘stories’ of real people. Mama Mboga is a real woman with rights. She may not know how to articulate them as well as a journalist does, but she needs to know her rights so that she can claim them. With knowledge, she is armed to separate the desirable from the rumour that is merely present and available. In human rights lingo, she is a “claim holder”, while the government from whom she seeks those rights is a “duty bearer”.

A rights-based approach to sexual and reproductive health demands that we use appropriate language to each audience and that we bring to the lowest level all that needs to be known to all. Medical experts, lawyers and journalists would be doing a cold, solid ice job on Kenyans if they stick to complicated medical, legal or journalistic language when talking about rights. Technical language must be broken down to make it available. If it means using sign language, vernacular or our national language, it must be done. It's Mama Mboga's right.