KENYA RECORDS CLOSE TO 4,000 TEENAGE PREGNANCIES IN ONE DISTRICT

Health officials are alarmed as one County in Kenya has recorded a staggering 3,964 teenage pregnancies over 5 months during the Coronavirus lock down in the East African Country.

According to the Kenya Health Information System Survey, Machakos County, located in the north eastern province in Kenya has seen a sudden urge in pregnancies in girls of age 19 and below.


The Children Officer for Machakos County, Salome Muthama blamed majority of the pregnancies on defilement by close family relatives of the girls. She said the actual number of pregnancies may be more than the ones reported.

Muthama also disclosed that about 200 of the girls are below 14 years old. Speaking to reporters in Machakos, Muthama quizzed, “How can a 12-year-old girl become a mother?”


“During this coronavirus pandemic, we do have 4000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls.”


“All the people who have impregnated these children needs to be arraigned but it is becoming a challenge. We need special court sittings to address and deal with these cases,” Muthama continued.

“Most of these cases you will find involve children who were taken from urban centres in the wake of COVID-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the countryside as the parents returned to the towns,” she added.