The Fifth Floor: The Kenyan women saying no to motherhood

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

According to Kenya’s Health Ministry, between 2020 and 2023, about 16,000 women in Kenya decided to undergo a sterilisation procedure known as tubal ligation. While some of them already had children and didn’t want any more, others were saying no to motherhood altogether: they’re women who define themselves as child-free, meaning they have consciously decided never to have children. BBC Africa's Danai Nesta Kupemba has been looking into the this movement and has spoken to two Kenyan women who have recently committed to a child-free life.

Also on the show: stories about people celebrating Ramadan around the world, with BBC Urdu's Aliya Nazki, BBC Indonesia's Silvano Hajid and BBC Arabic's Khitam Amer; cricket enthusiast Janhavee Moole reporting for BBC Marathi on India's recent success at the ICC Champions Trophy; and the ship fixing Africa's internet blackouts with Daniel Dadzie in Ghana.

Presented by Faranak Amidi. Produced by Hannah Dean, Alice Gioia and Caroline Ferguson.

(Photo: Faranak Amidi. Credit: Tricia Yourkevich.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.
0:07.8	This is the fifth floor.
0:11.5	The fifth floor, you knowssonous.
0:15.9	This is the fifth floor at Farnak Amidi Sobath. This is the fifth floor at the heart of global storytelling with BBC journalists from all around the world.
0:29.0	I'm your host, Farak Amidi.
0:36.4	According to Kenya's health ministry, between 2020 and 2023, about 16,000 women in Kenya
0:44.6	decided to undergo a sterilization procedure called tubal legation. It's commonly known as
0:51.4	getting your tubes tied and involves surgery to block a woman's
0:56.2	fallopian tubes, which are a crucial part of her reproductive system. And it basically means
1:02.1	she won't be able to have children. Some of the women who decided to undergo this procedure
1:07.2	already had children and didn't want any more. But others were saying no to motherhood
1:13.2	altogether. There are women who define themselves as child-free, meaning they have consciously
1:19.6	decided never to have children. The child-free movement is growing around the world, especially
1:26.0	in the West and in China. But it's a relatively
1:29.3	new phenomenon in Kenya. BBC Africa's Danai Nesta Kupamba has heard the stories of two
1:36.0	Kenyan women, 28-year-old Nelly, a 34-year-old Mutoni, who have both undergone the procedure.
1:43.3	I spoke to two women in Kenya who'd made the decision to commit to their child-free life,
1:48.9	so they'd known pretty much all their lives that they didn't want children.
1:52.6	One woman I spoke to Nelly, a development expert, she said she saw a life she wanted
1:59.0	in the books she read and the education she received and her father
2:02.8	really pushed her to delve deeper into these works. He said Tony Morrison, Bell Hooks, wrote
2:08.2	characters, you know, of women who lived life on their own terms without children and that gave
	...

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