President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania attended the just ended Melinda Gates Summit on contraception in London. In his speech, which by all measures was written by the IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) affiliate in Tanzania, Uzazi na Malezi Bora [UMATI] said his government ‘is planning to raise the contraceptive rate to 60 percent by 2015 from the current 27.4 percent in an effort aimed at improving the health of women and children’, as reported in the daily paper The Guardian of July, 23, 2012.
President Kikwete praised UMATI for what it has achieved since 1959. He said the organization has done a commendable job by raising the contraceptive prevalence rate from 5 percent in 1989 to 27.4 percent this year. But the President laments that this is very low and promised to put more commitment and determination in raising the contraceptive prevalence rate in the coming years. To achieve that goal, Mr. Kikwete said he would need a budget of USD88.2 million. He boasted to participants that the government has a family planning budget line for commodities. He said the government also gets funding from contributions by health partners, USAID, DFID and Australia AID. He asked the Summit to ‘oversee the financing gap closed’ to so that 4.2 million women are reached with contraceptives. He complained of challenges his country is facing, namely ‘lack of adequate resources, social inhibitions, both religious and cultural’. He intends to educate women in Tanzania to see the need to use contraceptives through ‘education and sensitization’.
It is sad to note a president of a country invited by an individual rich person to attend a summit whose objective he does not fully comprehend. President Kikwete fails to link this summit with the entire population control movement agenda in the world. With emphasis on poor countries of Africa and South Asia, it is apparent that the move is closely tied with eugenics philosophy or a racist agenda. Melinda Gates and her collaborators intend to wipe out black races in the world through her cleverly worked out mechanism – contraception and abortifacients.
President Kikwete does not understand that contraception harm women, instead he thinks contraception improves the health of women and children. Those who wrote the speech were very clever; they never told Mr. Kikwete that contraceptive use is associated with a long list of health and psychological hazards like; breast cancer, amerorrhea, prolonged bleeding or irregular bleeding and spotting, unexplained abnormal vaginal bleeding, heart disease due to blocked arteries (ischemic heart disease or stroke), very bad headaches (migranes) with blurred vision, weight gain, delayed return of fertility, breast tenderness, moodiness, nausea, hair loss, less sex drive, and/or acne, nervousness, enlargement of ovaries or enlargement of ovarian cysts, discharge, change in appetite, the list is endless. Such health and psychological problems do not improve the health of women rather they are health hazards that will take away family resources for medical treatment thus rendering even poorer.
But Mr. Kikwete’s speech does not surprise me, as in the past he attempted to convince the Home Affairs Ministry to de-register my organization, on the allegations that ‘our programs were going against government development programs’. This was about 12 years ago when I was invited to his home place, Chalinze, to give talks on pro-life issues to medical doctors and other professionals. I used that occasion to tell those in attendance the truth about side effects of contraceptives to uses. They harm women such that they a clear source of social and economic underdevelopment of this country. Some of those who attended reported to him and he became angry and wrote to the Home Affairs Ministry asking for them to de-register our organization. Fortunately we survived after we were able to demonstrate that contraceptives do harm women. Now that he is president and he supports contraception, I am worried he might use his position to intimidate us.
By embracing the contraceptive ideology Mr. Kikwete is putting his country and citizens into a grave danger of depopulation. No nation has embraced contraception without facing the catastrophe of depopulation. Perhaps he needs to learn from the same people who propose to him false solutions to the problems of his people that after 50 or so years of intensive contraceptive use, now their populations have gone down below replacement level and efforts to raise fertility rates have never succeeded. President Kikwete should understand that the solution to poverty is not contraception but good government planning and implementation of social and economic programs that aim at raising the standard of living of its people – good education, good medical services, good infrastructure, and provision of clean and safe water.
People of Tanzania are poor not because they do not use contraceptives, but because they are denied access to ‘the national cake’ by corrupt leaders in government and public institutions. Corruption is so rampant in all spheres of life, that there is a big gap between the haves and have nots. The downtrodden people are living a life misery, while those in power are enjoying everything through corruption. What causes poverty to Tanzanian people is government policy of selling away our natural resources to foreign investors who do not take heed to the needs of people. We are poor because we are too dependent on foreign aid. We are poor because those who exploit us economically are the ones who plan our economic development. Just imagine 60% of our national budget is financed by foreign aid. We cannot attain economic development by making our women sick through contraception. We will attain economic, social and political development if, and only if, we are able to stand on our own feet.
By attacking religion and traditional customs as being hindrances to the provision of contraceptives, President Kikwete is emptying himself; he is denying his very essence as a religious being and as a person who has been raised by traditional values. Who then is Mr. Kikwete, is he not a Moslem? Or is his only a nominal Moslem? Does he take his religion seriously? Whoever discredits his religion is a follower of the Devil. Religious teachings have over the ages taught mankind the virtues of love, peace, and reconciliation and promised its adherents a happy ending. Mr. Kikwete has been brought up by his tribal customs and values to become what he is today. Those countries that embraced contraception years back are now Godless, and in Islam they are called Kaffirs, that is non believers.
Does President Kikwete intend to take us to that end?