Mutua links teen pregnancies to moral decay

Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua yesterday expressed shock over the high number of pregnant teenagers in the county. 

A survey by Kenya Health Information System reveals that 3,964 girls below the age of 19 got pregnant between January and May this year. This, on average, implies that 28 girls conceived every day during that period.

Dr Mutua noted that the startling numbers illustrate the magnitude of the problem across the country.

He linked the pregnancies to the closure of religious institutions in the government's bid to slow down the spread of Covid-19, and a general moral decay at the household level. 

"We also need to be reasonable and admit that even though there are grown men preying on teenage girls, many young boys are boyfriends of their girl age mates and engage in teenage sex," he said in a statement.

The governor noted that men who defile girls should be dealt with, while there is also need to talk to our sons.

He called on stakeholders to address the issue, arguing that it risks breeding lasting gender inequality.

Urban centres

"You cannot have girls excluded from education while the boys who made them pregnant, are in class improving their chances of success in life. Girls, pregnant or otherwise, should never be stopped from attending school. It is their human right," he said.

Machakos County Children Officer, Salome Muthama, dropped the bombshell on teenage pregnancies during the Day of the African Child celebrations on Tuesday, linking it to Covid-19.

"These cases involve children who were taken from urban centres in the wake of Covid-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the village as their parents returned to the towns," Ms Muthama told reporters in Machakos Town.

This, she noted, exposed girls to sex pests as the grandparents are unable to closely monitor them.