Kenya Records Close to 4,000 Pregnant School Girls During Corona Virus Lockdown

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Obiajulu Joel Nwolu

Obiajulu Joel Nwolu is an established writer at africannewstoday.com. He is passionate about African affairs. He loves writing about interesting facts relating to the African continent and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.

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The chances of school girls in Kenya continuing their education after lockdown have been threatened by spate of pregnancy among school-going girls in the country.

Teen pregnancy has surged in the five months period of lockdown imposed in the country as measure to check the spread of fatal corona virus disease.

A Health Information Survey conducted in Kenya reveals that about 4,000 school girls have been impregnated over the course of the lockdown. North eastern prince- Machakos leads in the number of pregnancies recorded.

Data gathered reveals a total of 3,964 pregnancies among girls aged 19 years and below. Salome Muthama the Machakos County Children Officer claims the reported cases do not represent the actual figure. She said far more cases are unreported at present.

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

She further stated that most of the cases were as a result of defilement by close family members

She adds that about 200 of these girls are aged 14 years and below.

“How can a 12-year-old girl become a mother?” she posed.

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

She further blamed both the parents and the ineffective justice system for the prevailing crisis.

“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,” Ms Muthama told reporters in Machakos Town.

Source: African News