Kenya has reported a spike in teen pregnancies in a single county within a span of five months, an event that poses a grave threat to thousands of young girls’ educational future.

These new cases come at a time when Kenya has been included in a list of countries that possess the highest teen pregnancy rates in the world. Kenya has a rate of 82 births per 1,000 births.

The county in question is Machakos county, which is situated in the north eastern region of Kenya. According to a Kenya Health Information System survey, Machakos is leading numerous other counties in terms of teenage pregnancies around the country.

The data originating from this survey comes to show that a total of 3,964 girls 19-years-old or younger were impregnated within the past five months. However, Machakos County Children Officer Salome Muthama has said that even though that amount was reported, it is extremely likely that the actual numbers are much higher.

“During the Coronavirus pandemic we do have 4,000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls. […] How cana. 12-year-old girl become a mother?”

Machakos County Children Officer Salome Muthama

She continued to state that the majority of these cases came as a result of degradation by close family members, usually fathers, uncles, or older males in the family. It was also reported that around 200 of these girls were aged 14 and below.

These new teen pregnancies are undoubtedly tied to recent Coronavirus-related restrictions, with the closure of schools forcing children out of school and back into their homes in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

Salome has said that everyone who has impregnated these children needs to be arraigned but that this task is quite the challenge. She said that there is a need for special court sittings to address and deal with these cases.

Machakos Senior Resident Magistrate Charles Ondieki showed that the most challenging obstacle in prosecuting these cases was the lack of advocacy for the topic.

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Link to help:

https://child.org/do-something

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