How much does surrogacy cost in Kenya

While still a low-cost option for some couples, the SENSIBLE Surrogacy Agency has issued an advisory regarding surrogacy in Kenya. We advise clients to be cautious of surrogacy options in Kenya, and to consider other options if financial resources permit.

Our decision is based on the risks of unregulated surrogacy programs generally, the lower quality of medical care in the country, as well as the general risk to some travelers in Nairobi.surrogacy in kenya, nairobi

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Surrogacy in Kenya is still unregulated, but widely tolerated as a fertility treatment. The Kenyan constitution guarantees the right to form and be part of a family — going so far as to describe the family as the natural and fundamental unit of society and the necessary basis of social order. So it is not surprising that IVF and surrogacy in Kenya is widely accepted, while at the same time viewed skeptically by religious leaders.

With Southern and Southeast Asia effectively closed to surrogacy, several agencies are offering low-cost surrogacy options in Kenya and similar destinations. The lure of being able to have a very low-cost surrogacy program is attracting couples to the region. But the risks are significant and the medical facilities are generally appraised as mediocre.

As an alternative, SENSIBLE now recommends surrogacy in Eastern Europe or new lower-cost programs in the United States, which are safer and have higher success rates.

Estimates of infant mortality in Kenya for 2021 are 37 per 1,000 according to the CIA World Fact Book. That makes Kenya the 49th most dangerous place to have a child worldwide (out of 225 countries). Iraq and Papua New Guinea hold the subsequent spots on the CIA’s list.

We’ve checked with several online expat services, and they also warn foreigners about the quality of medical care. Meanwhile the U.S. State Department continues to issue travel advisories for the country. The U.S. Crime and Safety report explicitly warns of violent street crime targeted at Westerners in Nairobi itself.
 

Same Sex Couples and Surrogacy in Kenya

Kenya is one of the most anti-homosexuality cultures worldwide. A 2007 Pew Global Attitudes Project showed that 96% of Kenyan residents believe that homosexuality should not be accepted, this was the fifth-highest rate of non-acceptance in the 45 countries surveyed.

Homosexuality is largely considered repugnant and the state punishes same-sex sexual acts as crimes. For this reasons same-sex couples should think carefully about choosing Kenya as a destination for surrogacy.

Those couples traveling in Kenya should exercise strict discretion. For same sex couples, it is important that they do not represent themselves as a same-sex couple while in the country. Surrogacy agreements should be only between one partner and the surrogate, with no mention of the Intended Father’s sexual orientation or relationship status.

Discretion should not be limited only to public spaces. The government of Kenya in itself has warned that health care providers also often display prejudice. Homosexual couples often suffer stigma perpetuated by health care providers who breach their privacy and confidentiality by exposing their sexual orientation to other colleagues at the facilities. The health care providers are not friendly and couples pursing surrogacy in Kenya should not assume that their clinic or hospital will be more tolerant than the general public.

 

At the moment, there is no legal framework for surrogacy in Kenya. The lack of legal framework opens the possibility of “regulation at whim” of the local authorities. This has happened several times in other countries where, in the absence of a legal framework, a conservative administration proclaimed overnight (literally) that surrogacy would be treated as a form of Human Trafficking. The result was swift, unexpected and severe actions by the local police against both parents and surrogates.

There are pending regulations in the form of the In-Vitro Fertilization Act of 2014. The Bill (recently renamed the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill) gives heterosexual couples the right to gestational surrogacy in Kenyan clinics. But as of 2016, the Bill was still not ratified.

You can read the full Act on surrogacy in Kenya here.

The Act would limit surrogacy in Kenya to altruistic agreements only, meaning that no money or other benefits other than for reasonable expenses can been given or received by the couple or the surrogate. In essence, the 2014 law follows the template used to enable surrogacy in the UK, Australia and other European countries. The law also provides for a Parental Order process identical to the process now in place to regulate parental rights following surrogacy in the UK.

Note that, like in the UK, the surrogacy agreement itself will not guarantee the parental rights of the Intended Parents. The surrogate remains the legal mother, and any parent who gets a child under a surrogacy arrangement must take one more step to complete the legal journey. This is the Parental Order process. This Court Order amends birth certificate to reflect the intentions of the Surrogacy Agreement.
 

About the authors

  • Bill-Houghton
  • Author: William Houghton

    Bill Houghton is the founder of Sensible Surrogacy, author of the Sensible Surrogacy Guide, 2x surrogacy dad, and a dedicated advocate for secure, legal and ethical Gestational Surrogacy. Read Bill's Biography
 

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