Alarm raised as 120 Narok pregnant girls to sit exams
Narok county is not yet out of the woods in regard to teenage pregnancies, with a new report showing that 120 girls will write this year’s national exams while pregnant.
The report by the Narok County security committee shows that efforts are being made to ensure the pregnant girls sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations slated for next month.
Narok County Commissioner Isaac Masinde said despite recording high teenage pregnancies, there is hope as the numbers have dropped from 40 per cent last year to less than 30 per cent this year due to continuous public awareness campaigns in the county.
Worrying trend
Masinde, who released the report during an education stakeholders forum in Narok town, warned that the trend was worrying and should be addressed before it gets out of hand, as was the case in previous years.
“We have over 50 defilement cases in court and we, as the security team, will continue working with the Judiciary to ensure the sex predators face the law,” said Masinde, who is also the county security committee chairman.
“My request to all stakeholders, children rights activists, and parents is to be cautious of these sex pests and inform the police at any station, or report such cases to the children office,” he added.
The 2014 Kenya Demographic Health Survey ranked Narok the top county in teenage pregnancies at 40 per cent, with the report showing that one in every five girls between 15-19 years is either pregnant or already a mother.
A similar report by the United Nations Children’s Fund in 2020 reveals that four out of 10 girls in upper primary or secondary schools are likely to get pregnant.
With the average percentage of teenage pregnancies in Kenya standing at 18 per cent, records on Narok County show that 40 per cent of the cases have been fueled by cultural practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Genital mutilation
Chief Executive Officer of the Anti-FGM Board, Bernadette Loloju, says teenage pregnancies in Narok are intertwined with female genital mutilation (FGM), as locals still believe that girls must undergo the ‘cut’ in puberty to become women.
“When the girl is circumcised, she gets the greenlight to have sex since she has already been declared an adult. Also, the parents no longer have any right over her,” revealed Loloju.
Other causes
She added that the rise in cases of early pregnancies in the county is also due to peer pressure, inadequate information on reproductive health, poor parenting, absentee parents and early marriages.
To deal with the matter, she advised parents to spend quality time with their teenage daughters, and guide them to responsible adulthood.
Last year in July, the Narok County Director of Health, Dr Francis Kiio, shocked health and security stakeholders when he announced that there were at least 758 cases of teen pregnancies among girls aged 10 to 14 years from March to July that year.
A further 6,120 cases were reported among girls aged 15 to 19 years. Usually, these girls are married off quickly.
