Get Her Pregnant Physically, Get Tracked Digitally, Govt Cracks Whip on Teenage Pregnancies

The issue of teenage pregnancies has become a pain in the neck to the Kenyan Government especially after the shocking revelations that were made during this year’s KCPE and KCSE examinations.

The government promised to take strict actions on all perpetrators that would be found guilty of impregnating young school going girls.

In a bid to monitor the situation even further, the Kenyan government has developed a digital app that will be used to gather data on pregnancies among school-going girls.

Speaking while overseeing the KCSE exam in Nanyuki town, the Education CS said that the high number of teenage pregnancies has been an issue of great concern forcing her ministry to partner with international agencies and civil society groups to help curb the habit.

The new app, the CS said, will be distributed to all schools and gather data on the number of pregnancies reported in the past three years.

It will send a matrix to primary and secondary school heads, who will fill in pregnancy data in their schools. This will be done in a bid to come up with remedial measures.

While releasing KCPE results on Monday, CS Amina decried the rate of teenage pregnancies in the country.

“The rate of teenage pregnancies in the country is puzzling. Preliminary reports have shown that the magnitude of the problem is much bigger than we thought. We are staring a national crisis in the face,” she said.

She further urged parents to step up and take responsibility of their children.

“How don’t you know where your 12-year-old is in the afternoon? Why would you allow your child to be exposed to these really dangerous habits of going out in the afternoon in discos, drinking drugs and engaging in actions that all of us would be ashamed of? You need to take responsibility for these children.”

Kilifi County has become the ground zero of teenage pregnancies after it was revealed that over 13,000 girls got pregnant last year.

Kilifi Children Affairs Coordinator George Migosi said over the last one year, the County Health department recorded 13,624 pregnancies among teenage girls aged between 15-19.

He added that an additional 290 cases were reported among girls aged between 10-14.

“Among children aged between 10-14 we recorded 290 pregnancies, and these are the ones that were recorded at health centres. Among girls between 15-19 we had 13,624 cases,” said Migosi. “This is very alarming since we are talking about close to 14,000 cases over a period of one year.”

The county coordinator blamed parents for the early pregnancies, noting that among the over 13,000 cases, 5,000 of them were as a result of child negligence.

Apart from introduction of the digital app, what other measures should the government take to curb teenage pregnancies? 

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