Alarm Over Teen Pregnancies In Kilifi
Fourteen-year-old Kadzo bashfully covers her face with her palms as she narrates how a boy lured her into an intimate relationship that ended after she became pregnant.
She says her lover, almost her age, pampered her. Occasionally, he could bring her a sachet of Omena and one kilo of maize flour. He conquered her heart through the stomach.
Kadzo hails from the remote village of Baricho in Magarini, Kilifi County. It is a semi-arid area where families depend on relief food. Poverty levels are high, and food and water are scarce.
“Giving birth was not easy. I braved the pain in my lower abdomen. I delivered the baby at home with the help of my grandmother. I dropped out of school,” said Kadzo.
In Baricho, Kadzo’s story resonates with many mothers aged 15–19 years. In this area, some girls aged 21 years are grandmothers.
On the flip side, a report by the county government shows that about 13,368 teenagers in Kilifi are now using family planning to reduce cases of early pregnancies.
Research conducted by the county and Performance Monitoring for Action however warn of the dangers of abusing the p2 pill by young girls.
”Two in 5 girls swallow P2 every week. We have also seen that more teenagers aged 15 up to 19 are active in sex,” said the PMA researcher Michael Waithaka.
But health experts say that cases of teenage pregnancies were on the rise due to the prevailing hunger situation in Kilifi. Most girls are pushed into transactional sex to survive.
In a joint survey released recently by Performance Monitoring for Action [PMA] and the county government of Kilifi, pre-teen pregnancies have increased by 30 percent.
The report indicates that between 2021 and 2022, Kilifi recorded 5,581 teenage pregnancies, 1,396 of which were girls aged 10 and 14 years.
The report indicates that one in five adolescent girls aged 15–19 in Kilifi is a mother or pregnant with their first child. This is collaborated by reports from public hospitals.
Dr. Kenneth Miriti of the County Focal Person for Reproductive Sex Maternal Child and Adolescent Health says most women seeking prenatal care in Kilifi are aged 10 to 14 years.
” It’s disturbing to see a ten-year-old heavily pregnant,” said Miriti, adding that early childbearing can increase risks for newborns as well as young mothers.
“Babies born to teenage mothers face higher risks of low birth weight among infants, prolonged and difficult labour, hemorrhage, and other severe complications,” he said.
Doctor Miriti said its rollout of comprehensive sexuality education in Kenya was drawing push-back from the ministry of education and the ministry of health.
He said sexual education in the country was fear-inducing, judgemental, and focused only on abstinence and demonizing sex as a dangerous and immoral thing for young people.
”The ministry of education forbids sex education to children of that age bracket (10-14) by other stakeholders except those that are in the education curriculum,” said Miriti.
Ms. Mumina Alaso, a community health volunteer, says parents should talk to their children about the dangers of premarital sex. She said it was still a taboo among parents to discuss sex with their teens.
“But it is morally wrong to be talking about a 10-year-old being a mother. We need to go back to our moral values to avoid such things happening to our girls,” she said.
With the biting drought, many school-going children are out of class because of hunger, which might spell doom, health experts say.
Rights organizations and gender activists are now calling for a robust strategy to tame this menace, which spells doom for girls if not tamed.
Ms. Magret Kache, a mother who got pregnant at 13, said the experience was traumatizing to parents as most of the girls drop out of school.
”The dream of every father or mother is to bring up children that would be great through good education. It is traumatizing as a parent to see your baby having a baby, my daughter got pregnant when she was 13 years in class five,” said the mother of three.
As the county makes some strides in tackling early pregnancies, Kilifi is also facing a ticking time bomb of the rise of Gender-based violence (GBV) cases among women and girls.
The PMA report indicated that girls suffered the most from defilement, attempted defilement, child marriage, and teenage pregnancy.
The report also indicated an increase in girls procuring abortions, engaging in drug abuse, being neglected and sexually violated by family members and relatives, and being confined unlawfully.
”GBV cases have increased by 20 percent in the last year. Only 3 out of 10 survivors seek help from the police,” reads part of the report.
But the report indicates that the county’s advocacy for the use of contraceptives to prevent unwanted pregnancy and abortion has started to yield positive results.
About The Author
