How rogue gynaecologists exploit patients

One woman was forcibly groped. Another was asked to embrace the doctor while undressed. For the third woman, the gynaecologist attempted to kiss her against her will.

“The doctor asked me to undress and the next thing I knew his fingers were all over my body. This caught me by surprise. I nearly threw up out of discomfort. I cried,” recounts a fourth patient.

Another says the doctor inserted some fingers in her genitals and his thumb in her mouth during a session. This happened while her son and husband waited for her at the clinic lounge. ‘‘I lay on the table, paralysed. I have never been so traumatised,’’ she recalls.

By using force, sly and flippancy, some rogue elements in the country’s gynaecology sub-sector exploit older women and teenagers alike, whenever patients seek their care.

One woman says the doctor asked for her mobile number and kept sending her lewd text messages, while badgering her for a date. She says: ‘‘The man is a family friend, which made it worse. I was 17.’’

These are chilling tales of women’s anguish in the hands of rogue gynaecologists. While most experiences are outright abhorrent, others read like passages off the script of a horror film. 

In this article, the reporter spoke with multiple victims of exploitation by sexual reproductive health practitioners. Their candid stories lift the lid on the ill practices that are the underworld of predatory doctors and those who masquerade as qualified health professionals.

These violations have occurred to the women either knowingly or unknowingly, and without redress. Some even for years. For some, it took sharing these experiences with close confidantes to realise they had been abused. In almost all cases, however, no action is taken.

While some gynaecologists have been exposed and their misconduct highlighted in the media in the past, most incidents of doctor indecency go unreported as women agonise in silence.

To protect their identity, this article will neither use the women’s actual names nor reveal the names of clinics they visited. Lydia recalls how her doctor used to caress her as he examined her breasts. “I have seen gynaecologists multiple times. But one doctor I was seeing in Nakuru would spend about five minutes fondling my breasts during every visit. I did not protest. One day he touched my backside and immediately apologised. It is then that I decided enough was enough. I stopped visiting the clinic,’’ she says.

Like many victims, she did not report the matter anywhere.  “He was the owner of the clinic. I was afraid of being dismissed. Even though I felt degraded, I chose to walk away.’’

In some incidents, this distasteful conduct by doctors exploits the ignorance and naivety of young women, particularly those consulting for the first time. This was the experience of *Terry Njaramba in 2015, then just a teenager.

‘‘I was due to join university and one of the requirements by my school was to undergo a pregnancy test among other reproductive health procedures. It was the first time I was undertaking such procedures,’’ she relates.

And who better to see than a doctor friend of her family’s? Her father would accompany her to the clinic in what would turn into a traumatic experience for her. ‘‘He handled my body in a manner that made me feel dirty,” she says without elaboration.

For Terry, to be violated by a stranger is repugnant enough. To suffer a similar ordeal in the hands of someone she knows all too well is the bottom-of-the-barrel of any humiliation that someone can endure.

The legal assistant says the least she expected from her doctor was a safe space and professional care. What she got instead has scarred her to date. Did she report him? ‘‘How could I?’’ she wonders. ‘‘I did not expect this from my father’s friend. Someone in our lives that I get to see regularly,’’ she regrets. 

Terry’s experience is not isolated. Rather, this is the forced fate of thousands of girls such as Cheryl who visit a doctor for similar medical clearance procedures every year. 

“I was 19 when, after examining me, the doctor proceeded to ask me out for a drink. I gave him my number out of a weird sense of obligation,” narrates Cheryl, saying she felt roundly violated but could do nothing.

“I never answered his calls or the provocative text messages he kept sending to me. The humiliating experience keeps replaying in my head. I wonder if I could have handled the situation better,” she says, adding that she stopped seeing male gynaecologist s for fear of similar misconduct. 

Then there is Lorraine, 37, who says that seeing a gynaecologist is hands down the most awkward experience she has to endure as a woman. She describes her first experience with a gynaecologist as a disaster. “I am very shy when it comes to my private parts. The doctor simply asked me to lie on a table and spread out my legs as he put on gloves. He said nothing else to me. Instead, he just stared at me as I lay there consumed with guilt and wishing for the worst,’’ she narrates.

“It is so unpleasant for a doctor to examine your sexual anatomy without reassuring you,’’ she says. ‘‘It is embarrassing enough to expose your privacy to a man who is not your husband. But to have them abuse that privacy is cringy.’’ If some experienced doctors are guilty of indecency towards patients, it is among trainee doctors where the ethics ball is commonly dropped. One woman who spoke to Healthy Nation says she walked into the examination room of a facility operated by a medical training school only to find three male trainee doctors. The trio was to examine her.

‘‘It is cringeworthy to be alone in a room with a male gynaecologist. But having three men examine me did not feel right,’’ remembers Elena.

She goes on to argue that while it is understandable that student doctors ‘‘are curious to learn how pap smear, for instance, works,’’ having three men ‘‘take turns to peer down your birth canal should not be normalised.’’

Those who have shared their experiences with Healthy Nation say things would start off normally. But as soon as doctor-patient trust had been earned, the physician would slowly unleash his predatory inclinations and start exploiting them or attempt to do so.

Such is what happened to Esther. For the 44-year-old mother of three, it is the audacious and repeated physical and psychological violation by her doctor that she is guilty of and enraged about. Between 2018 and 2021, Esther says she had experienced recurrent vaginal cysts and occasional breast lumps, necessitating sessions with a gynaecologist. But even after both conditions were cured, the specialist she had been consulting continued to book her for ‘‘examination’’ appointments.

She says these sessions would fall on specific days and at specific times. But coming from someone she had entrusted the deepest secrets of her body with, Esther says there was nothing alarming about the routine.

‘‘He would be alone in the clinic during most of my visits. He would first study breasts and then vagina for what I thought was unnecessarily long,’’ she narrates.

“I never objected. After all, the doctor knew better. It never occurred to me that he was being unprofessional,” Esther adds. This was before her husband noticed the pattern and raised it. He went on to insist on accompanying her to her next appointment, she recalls. ‘‘When we showed up at the clinic, the doctor deferred my appointment.’’

Her husband was so infuriated he forbade her to see the doctor again. ‘‘I had to cut off communication with him, devastated that I had been blind to not realise the impropriety. This nearly broke my marriage,’ she says bitterly.

For many adult women, a visit to the gynaecologist ranks high on the list of the most frightful but essential undertakings. For Shawadi, the thought of visiting an obstetrician is a hair-raising moment. At 26, Shawadi understands the need to see a reproductive health professional regularly for procedures such as pap and vaginal infections tests, pelvic exams and cancer screenings. The possibility of developing endometriosis, infertility or cysts frightens her, except she has never seen a gynaecologist. Why? ‘‘I am more scared of experiences I have heard about from people close to me than I am of possible infections?’’ she says wistfully.

She adds: ‘‘My mother has been persuading me to see one but I have been hesitant so far. I am afraid of what the doctor may find. But unless I am sure of my safety and dignity, I do not want to take the risk.’’

Another woman says the doctor kept touching her hands as they spoke in his crumpled office. ‘‘I had had chlamydia for some time. I had to play along. I just wanted to get treated for the condition,’’ she says.

Another tells Healthy Nation that she tolerated undisclosed inappropriate behaviour by the doctor ‘‘because I was in pain.’’

Doctor misconduct in Kenya is largely attributed to quackery, with fake doctor Mugo wa Wairimu easily coming to mind. Last year, the High Court sentenced Mugo to 33 years in jail for sedating and raping his female patients. He was also found guilty of operating a clinic without a licence for more than five years in different locations in Nairobi. 

Mugo shot to infamy in 2015 when his clinic was reported to exploit women sexually. In the saga that contained all the hallmarks of debauchery, Mugo’s patients would recover from sedation only to find themselves without underwear. 

After his arrest and arraignment, the court found him not guilty. He would be released, only to prey on more women victims. More complaints would emerge, leading to his second arrest in 2018. 

The court would hear sensational stories of how the quack operated using multiple titles, for instance, among them a general practitioner, gynaecologist, surgeon, pharmacist and nurse. He used a title that suited the occasion, often based on the patient he was seeing. 

As Mugo was condemned for three decades, the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (KOGS) disowned him. Thus, his pie crumbled. 

But even as he serves time in jail, other scoundrels roam the market freely where patients are exploited and their dignity robbed.

Astonishingly, 80 per cent of all clinics in Nairobi County, for instance, are illegal. These are the findings of a 2019 survey conducted by the devolved unit at the time. Then, only 1,079 of the 9,043 health facilities in the county were operating legally. 

The controversy-laden death of human rights activist Caroline Mwatha in February of that year highlighted the staggering rot in the county’s - and by extension the country’s – public health sector.

While the civil society in Kenya suspected foul play in her death, the official narrative was that Caroline had died from complications of an abortion procedure gone wrong. She had allegedly procured the service from a backstreet clinic that the Nairobi County Assembly Health Committee said had been operating without a licence. 

So, what then are avenues for protecting the public against rogues? What do medical regulations say?

Dr Joachim Osur, a sexual and reproductive health expert, says doctors are bound by a code of conduct and an oath in their profession. He notes that by examining a patient without a third person in the room, for example, a gynaecologist is in violation of existing regulations. 

‘‘The standard practice requires that there is a chaperone [especially where] examination of private parts is required,’’ the vice-chancellor of Amref International University says.

Dr Osur, however, notes that under certain circumstances, a doctor may examine a patient alone. ‘‘This may happen especially where there are staff constraints, which is quite common in [our] hospitals. Our health system is still not able to meet some quality needs.’’

Before any examination, however, the doctor should explain the procedure to the patient. ‘‘As a patient, you have the right to refuse to undergo the session.’’ Consent allows the doctor to explore the woman’s genitals to conduct all the necessary tests. But even with this consent, Dr Osur says a gynaecologist does not have the leeway with the patient’s body. ‘‘You must do the right thing.’’

‘‘Once the examination has been determined, the line should be clear to both doctor and patient,’’

But what to do when regulations are violated? Dr Osur says if a patient feels that they have been handled inappropriately, even in the slightest way, they must report the incident. ‘‘This can be reported to either the police, the Medical Council or the county health office. If in a hospital, most facilities today have a complaints desk where such cases may be reported,’’ the doctor says.

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