The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill: Licensing Fertility Clinics and Regulating Surrogacy in Kenya

Kenya’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill would create the country’s first dedicated licensing regime for fertility clinics and its first statutory framework for surrogacy. It has already passed the National Assembly and is now with the Senate, which makes it worth understanding in detail even though it is not yet law, and even though earlier, unrelated reproductive health bills from prior Parliaments sometimes cause confusion about which bill is actually pending.

Identifying the Right Bill and Where It Stands

The bill currently live in Parliament is the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill, 2022, National Assembly Bill No. 61 of 2022, sponsored by Hon. Millie Odhiambo Mabona and gazetted on 16 December 2022. This is distinct from an earlier, broader Reproductive Healthcare Bill from a prior Parliament, which was not specifically an ART or surrogacy bill and is not the instrument this article addresses. Per Parliament’s own record, the National Assembly passed the Bill with amendments on 1 November 2025, and the Senate gave it First Reading on 4 December 2025, referring it to the Senate Standing Committee on Health for public participation. As of the most recent order paper reference available, the Bill remained under Senate committee consideration in late July 2026, with no confirmed Senate passage or presidential assent. A firm or client relying on this article should check Parliament’s own bill tracker immediately before treating any provision as settled law, since the Bill could move through the Senate at any point.

A New Directorate Would License Fertility Clinics

As introduced, the Bill establishes an Assisted Reproductive Technology Directorate under the Cabinet Secretary for Health, expressly made subject to section 18 of the Health Act 2017. The Directorate’s functions include setting standards and guidelines, prescribing minimum physical infrastructure requirements for clinics, prescribing minimum educational requirements for ART experts and embryologists, and maintaining a public register of licensed facilities. Licensing itself, in the bill as originally drafted, sits with the Directorate acting in consultation with the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council, rather than with KMPDC alone. Facility inspection is required before licensing, and a licence can be varied or revoked on grounds including false information, unsuitable premises, or conviction of an offence under the Act, with temporary suspension of up to three months available pending revocation proceedings. A refused or revoked applicant may seek review from the Cabinet Secretary and then appeal to the High Court. The Senate’s own December 2025 Bill Digest describes licensing in language that reads as giving KMPDC a more direct role than the original Directorate-led, KMPDC-consulted model, but the exact amended clause text was not independently confirmed for this article, so the precise final licensing-authority language should be checked against the passed text before being stated as settled.

Surrogacy Would Be Regulated, Not Banned, With Commercial Surrogacy Effectively Prohibited

The Bill’s surrogacy provisions require a surrogate mother to be at least 25 years old and to have previously given birth to at least one child. The surrogate relinquishes all parental rights at birth and must hand over the child immediately, with no ongoing rights or obligations regarding the child unless the surrogacy agreement provides otherwise. Surrogacy agreements must be in writing, entered into within Kenya, address custody and welfare contingencies including the death, separation, or divorce of the commissioning parents before birth, and be witnessed with each side represented by separate independent advocates, whose fees the commissioning parents pay. Commercial surrogacy is effectively prohibited in the bill as originally drafted: the surrogate may not receive monetary or other benefits beyond expenses reasonably incurred in the surrogacy process, and arranging or advertising surrogacy services for consideration is a separate offence. The surrogate may still claim compensation tied to IVF, pregnancy, and post-natal costs, lost earnings due to the surrogacy, and insurance against death or disability arising from it. Press coverage of the November 2025 floor amendments reports a further restriction confining commissioning parents to Kenyans who are divorced, widowed, or single, which does not appear in the original 2022 bill text and should be treated as reported rather than confirmed pending the amended text.

Parentage and Penalties

Under the bill as introduced, the commissioning parents are the legal parents of the child from birth, listed as such on the birth notification and certificate, and the child acquires their citizenship under Article 14(1) of the Constitution. Parentage disputes may be brought to the High Court within 60 days of the child’s birth. On the penalty side, the general provision for offences with no specified penalty sets a fine of up to KES 1,000,000 or imprisonment of up to two years, or both, while a set of specific offences, including consent violations, prohibited-activity breaches, and unlicensed practice, each carry a fine of up to KES 5,000,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both. A body corporate committing certain offences faces a fine of up to KES 5,000,000. These specific figures are confirmed both by the original bill text and by press coverage of the amended version, giving reasonable confidence they remain current, though the Senate could still adjust them before final passage.

What This Means for a Fertility Clinic or Prospective Operator

An operator planning a fertility clinic in Kenya should not restructure compliance around a bill that has not passed the Senate, but should track it closely given how far advanced it already is. The most useful preparation now is understanding the Directorate-led licensing structure, the infrastructure and staffing standards it would introduce, and the firm prohibition on commercial surrogacy that has held constant from the original 2022 text through to press reporting of the amended version, since that prohibition is unlikely to soften on further amendment. Confirming the current Senate committee status directly with Parliament before advising a client on timing is the single most important verification step, since a committee report could emerge at any point.