African Pro-Lifer Threatened by Abortion Groups, Fears for Her Safety

By | April 11, 2019

Anne Kioko

NEW YORK, April 12 (C-Fam) A pro-life leader who shut down abortion giant Marie Stopes in Kenya fears for her life. She says abortion groups backed by the United Nations, powerful countries, and foundations have put a target on her back.

Anne Kioko has become a thorn in the side of powerful internationally backed abortion groups in Kenya by running successful campaigns against abortion, comprehensive sexuality education, and the homosexual/transgender agenda. Kioko, who is the campaign director for CitizenGo in Kenya, says the group most directly opposed to her is the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance.

“These people are very well-funded, and they have developed real hate against me,” she said during a telephone interview.

The Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance is a pro-abortion lobbying coalition backed by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and groups funded by the U.S. government.

Last Fall, Kioko became the face of the pro-life movement in Kenya when she presented a petition to the government denouncing Marie Stopes for performing abortions on minors and giving them contraception without parental consent. The abortion giant was temporarily prohibited from carrying out abortions in Kenya as a result. Marie Stopes is the largest single abortion group in the world. It set itself the target of performing 6 million abortions globally each year in 2017, according to a reportfiled with the UN Secretary General.

The abortion ban was covered in African and international radio and television outlets, including Reuters and the BBC.

Now Kioko fears for her safety.

An insider warned Kioko that a leader of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Alliance, Mwikali Kivuvani, has threatened violence against her. “She said that she can’t wait to meet me personally. And that she is going to confront me,” Kioko said.

Kioko has also been subject to threats and harassment on social media.

“Here in Kenya I have to be careful on how I operate. You can be killed, and it appears like an accident,” Kioko said.

The same insider told Kioko that abortion groups are tracking her movements.

“I only turn my phone on when I need it. I have to turn it off when I am moving from one place to another,” she said. She fears being targeted when traveling in rural areas.

Kioko denounced the global abortion industry at UN headquarters during an event sponsored by the Holy See and the Center for Family and Human Rights, publisher of the Friday Fax, on the margins of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Kioko felt very strongly about the need to tell diplomats and UN officials her experience.

“A young girl in a village like mine does not need contraception to feel empowered, she does not need policies that prioritize abortion, she does not need destructive curricula like comprehensive sexuality education,” Kioko said.

The Kenyan chair of the commission, Ms. Koki Muli Grignon, accused pro-life groups of harassing her. It is thought she was referring to petitions she received from CitizenGo. At the same commission, a delegate of the Holy See accused pro-abortion nations of threatening and bullying pro-life delegates.

Kioko told the Friday Fax that Grignon has long held ties to the abortion industry in Kenya.