Menace in the society can either be handled by the authorities or trust the members of the area to take action themselves.This is often when the disappointment has crossed the limits, which is what pregnancies have done in a certain community in Kenya.
Youths residing in Lake Victoria beaches have organised themselves into vigilante groups to deal with sex pests who defile and impregnate teenage girls.
The youths, whose kin have fallen victim to sex predators, collect information on suspects before taking any action.
Dan Otieno, a resident of Wich-lum beach, Bondo constituency, said they have sworn to deal with the manipulators who have ruined the future of their relatives and forced them out of school.
“We will not listen to kangaroo courts presided over by elders, which encourage the vice instead of ending it. Once we are done with our investigations and have lists of those behind the teenage pregnancies, we will storm their homes and workplaces and humiliate them publicly,” he said.
Otieno claimed that police were not helping solve the teenage pregnancies menace despite many complaints, adding that police always say investigations are underway.
The vigilante group operating under ‘Okoa Siste’ theme seeks to have branches in all beaches in Bondo and Radieda constituencies, and has vowed to fight for girls until the vice is wiped out along the lake.
He said the idea of forming the vigilante groups was mooted last weekend when ODM leader Raila Odinga’s wife Ida Odinga challenged youths to take up the responsibility of protecting girls and women.
Reacting to a report by African Youth and Adolescent Associates, which said the county was among those with the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the country, Ida asked youths to divert energies towards protecting girls from sex pests.
Do you believe the movement is the best way to tackle the issue?
Speaking during a behavioral change campaign at Wich-lum beach, the organisation’s patron Aggrey Owino regretted that Siaya beaches had become pregnancy traps for girls.
County Health executive Dorothy Owino said the rate of teenage pregnancies stands at 40 per cent in Siaya. Kenya’s teenage pregnancy woes were exposed during this year’s KCPE examinations, when many candidates sat the papers in maternity wards.