Cases of early pregnancies in school going girls has been rampant in Bungoma with approximately 20% of girls in both high school and primary being affected and this has called on 40 groups of youths to campaign against the menace.
According to the reports released by national council for population and development in 2021 shows that Bungoma county recorded ten thousand two hundred and ninety one cases of ealy pregnancies among girls aged 15 to 19.
According to Julie Silver one of the youths she says that approximately 20% of high school and primary girls being are affected, this has motivated over 40 groups of youths to campaign against the epidemic.
Accorging to David Famba, coordinator ministry of health, last year Bumula constituency recorded 800 cases of early pregnancies for only those who attended clinics.
“Within Bumula for the last one year we had around 800 are cases that we have recorded in our system those who came for the ANC . There are those that will be pregnant but they will not come to the clinic or hospitals but according to our records its about 800 and we are supporting them,” said David Famba.
Major drivers includes presence of technology, inadequate reproductive health information ,lack of parental guidance and peer pressure. Parents have also been urged to have open discussions with their children on matters concerning sex.
“We used to stay with our grandparents who used to teach us about life. But now our children are mostly in town exposed to televisions and young parents are busy on telephone and I will just advice that if you are a mother take time with your child and start educating them on sex education earlier,” said one of the coordinators.
During the campaign on the reproductive health issues the government has been called upon to intervene and invest heavily to curb the menace. In the event girls were given sanitary towels as the coordinators claims this is one way of ending the problem.
By Emmaculate Wamalwa
