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First Ladies raise alarm over teen pregnancies cases in Laikipia
The County First Ladies Association chairperson Maria Mbeneka, argues that parents have abandoned their role of mentoring teenagers about their sexuality.
What you need to know:
- The County First Ladies Association chairperson Maria Mbeneka, says parents have abandoned their role of mentoring teenagers about their sexuality.
- Statistics from the Laikipia Health Service show that 15,015 girls aged between 10 and 19 years have conceived in the last three years.
The County First Ladies Association (CFLA) has raised concern over the rise of teenage pregnancies in Laikipia.
The association chairperson Maria Mbeneka, argues that parents have abandoned their role of mentoring teenagers about their sexuality.
Statistics from the Laikipia Health Service (LHS) show that 15,015 girls aged between 10 and 19 years have conceived in the last three years, and are currently young mothers.
“During the two weeks of engagement with our people at the grassroots, we have realised that some parents have failed to provide mentorship to their children. The community should devote and be bold enough in telling them the truth about their sexuality,” the Laikipia First Lady said.
“That role of mentoring teenagers has solely been left to the parents who are ever busy at work. Registering more than 15,000 teenage pregnancies in a span of three years is worrying. That is why I am urging religious institutions and schools not to relent in the fight against these vices,” she added.
Out of the 15,015 cases, 5,506 were reported in 2019, 5,489 in 2020 and 4,020 in 2021.
According to Laikipia County Statistical Abstract 2021, the number of males using condoms in the county has declined in the last three years from 5,647 in 2018, to 5,274 in 2019 and 3,658 in 2020.
The data was gathered by the county government in partnership with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
It further shows that there were 1,618 abortions in 2018, 1,525 in 2019 and 1,492 in 2020. This is according to the cases that were reported in government healthcare centres.
Rise Her Initiative, a lobby group, aims at offering a menstrual hygiene sensitisation program to more than 10,000 girls in the county, and providing more than 1,000 of them with sanitary towels in the next three years.
“We have been training the girls to be responsible and desist from being manipulated by men in exchange for sanitary towels. We encourage them to pass the knowledge to their colleagues at the homestead level,” the organisation patron Paul Mwaniki, told nation.africa.
“We have also been training parents on how to sustain their homes during the Covid-19 pandemic, and will be fledging out to other counties,” Mr Mwaniki added.
The tour, Ms Mbeneka said, also revealed that most teenagers in the county had received the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV).
“We have realised that the number of children who have received HPV has increased. I thank parents, teachers and all the LHS workers for their support in rolling out the vaccine to young girls. All this is geared towards fighting cancer in our community and we are happy our people have embraced the vaccine,” she said.
