Teen pregnancies 'disaster' needs quick solutions, says Kingi

Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi has formed a team to investigate teenage pregnancies, in a county where 13,624 cases were reported this year among school children aged 15 to 19.

While making the announcement on Tuesday, the governor said he was shocked by news that a 10-year-old girl in Rabai was pregnant.

DISASTER

The probe committee will be made up of officers from the health, education and gender affairs departments.

It has a month to look into the matter and give recommendations on how to solve the problem.

Mr Kingi termed the problem a disaster which needs urgent solutions to prevent the creation of a poverty-stricken generation.

“Imagine a situation where a child gives birth to a child. She is then unable to complete her education and secure a job to educate her child. This will lead to a poverty-stricken generation in future,” he said.

Regarding the girl in Rabai, the governor regretted that the man walks scot free.

MENTORSHIP

Mr Kingi also announced that Kilifi will introduce a mentorship programme to help tackle the problem.

“We shall also deploy social workers to every village to mentor families and find out what went wrong in our society,” he said.

"In the past, boys and girls were brought up together and it took the whole community to bring up a child. It is time to find out what went wrong."

Malindi member of Parliament Aisha Jumwa said she will push for a law to curb the menace.

Ms Jumwa also petitioned the county assembly to develop a by-law to ban the sell and consumption of ‘Mogoka’, which has been identified as one of the major problems.

She explained that ready availability of the stimulant among youths, due to its cheap price of between Sh20 and Sh50, has increased consumption among youths and resulted in cases of unprotected sex and crime.